I haven’t been too impressed with the Farrelly Brothers lately. Ever since There’s Something About Mary, I felt that their quality of output has declined. Me, Myself & Irene wasn’t very good, Osmosis Jones had good animated segments, but the live-action portion was disappointing. Shallow Hal, admittedly, was better than it looked – at least, the moral within the story was solid. So when I saw that their new film was about two conjoined twins, I thought it would be amusing, but not anything notable. I was pleasantly surprised.
Stuck on You features the unlikely pairing of Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who move to Los Angeles because Walt (Kinnear) wants to pursue acting. There are plenty of jokes to be had, and as expected, they range from toilet humor, to subtle and witty. I was truly amazed that Cher (playing herself) rolled with the punches with jokes about her plastic surgery, and her preference for younger men.
Of course, there is a moral to this story, and the Farrelly Brothers have a rather uncanny way of injecting heartwarming material in their otherwise schlocky films. (They also constantly manage to cast as many Providence locals and friends of theirs into their films, which adds a home-styled feeling.) The ending, featuring a musical number (on stage) with Kinnear and Meryl Streep, seemed a bit out of place, but ended the film on a high note.
The real test of success for any comedy (for me) is: did I laugh? In the case of Stuck on You, yes, I laughed plenty. The rest of the crowd did too. While it might not be as good as some other films out there, this comedy is certainly worth checking out if you’re up for a good time.