COLUMN: Don’t get stuck watching ‘Stuck on You,’ try ‘Butterfly’
“Stuck on You”
C
The Oscar nominations just went out, and in their honor, I’ve decided to review a fairly recent release that features two former Oscar winners in lead roles: “Stuck On You.”
It’s difficult to make a fair assessment of this one. It is one of the most asinine movies I’ve seen, yet it still manages to entertain and even get laughs from time to time.
For those of you thinking you might run by the CineFour and catch this flick, the basic premise has Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear playing conjoined twins that run a burger joint in Martha’s Vineyard. Most of the film is a series of attempts to put the pair in situations that display the humor of their predicament, but eventually a primary story line evolves whereby Kinnear decides he wants to move to Hollywood and become an actor. Damon is obviously compelled to come along, and thus the zany adventure begins.
A movie like this spawns many questions. The first one that popped into my head was, “Why did two guys with Oscars decide to get involved in this thing?” The second was, “What horrible turn has my life taken that has left me in a dark movie theater on a Tuesday night watching a comedy about conjoined twins?”
I couldn’t answer those questions, nor could I answer the third: “In our politically correct and enlightened times, wouldn’t the filmmakers be concerned with offending the powerful and influential conjoined twin lobby?”
In 2001, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” portrayed a 1930s political campaign that used a “vertically challenged” fellow as a sidekick/mascot for its candidate. As a reflection of the social climate of the 1930s, I figured it was acceptable.
Then later, I was watching infomercials at about 1 a.m. (see question No. 2, above) when I saw a real estate company using TWO such fellows as their spokespersons. And as much as the spokesmen tried to talk about confidence and professional salesmanship, the infomercial was clearly marketing quirkiness.
So, what’s the difference between offensive and acceptable?
“Stuck On You” does sincerely try to communicate a message of human acceptance, much in the same way that Tod Browning’s 1931 cult classic “Freaks” does (now there’s a fun date movie), but given the style of so many of the gags, I’m still wondering where the line is drawn.
It might make a difference if the movie itself was better. As mentioned previously, the film functions as little more than a sequence of skits designed to create amusing sight gags, and some work while others get tired. Cameo performances by Cher and Meryl Streep (also Oscar winners) color the production a bit, though the best supporting performance easily belongs to Kinnear’s “agent,” played by Seymour Cassel (Max Fischer’s dad in “Rushmore”).
Altogether, I saw “Stuck On You” as what it was meant to be: A dollar movie.
Joshua Terry is a graduate student in the American studies program. Contact him by e-mail at jterry@english.usu.edu, or visit his Web site at www.planetvenison.com.