The comedy genre has always been a difficult one to tackle. There are so many shades of humor and most of the time it boils down to making fun of other people, especially the freaks. It doesn’t matter in what area you are a freak: you can have funny features, unusual habits or do stupid things. To me, the comedy arena is one I don’t like to face very often. I am the type of person who sees a joke coming from miles off. That has nothing to do with being really smart (because I am just average), but more to do with whether you like the type of pranks and jokes depicted. Generally there are two types of humor: visual and verbal. I am the kinda guy who’s in the verbal camp. Stuck on You, the latest by the Farrellys is my kinda movie. And that’ was a huge surprise’

Bob and Walt (played by Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear) are Siamese twins’ excuse me: conjoined twins, as Bob likes to call it. They have spent their entire lives looking as though they’re stuck to each other, but acting as though they are separated. Both of them have their individual hobbies and they work at the local burger joint at Martha’s Vineyard. When Walt wants to pursue his acting career and wants to head off to Hollywood, Bob has no other choice than to follow his brother.

The idea of conjoined twins who resemble each other as much as Cher resembles Meryl Streep is ridiculous. The way the two of them make fun of their disability is even more preposterous. Still, the Farrellys get away with this totally non-credible idea. As a viewer you believe it right away. The jokes Bob and Walt make are obvious, but somehow work. However, what is most impressive about Stuck on You is the way the Farrelly brothers portray disabled people by making fun of them, but with a huge sense of respect at the same time. The mockery is very subtle and smooth and the Farrellys avoid taking the effort to be politically correct. That is also clear from the large amount of disabled extras.

There are two well-known actresses playing themselves, giving us insight in their huge sense of self-mockery. Cher plays a stupid bitch of an actress, with impossible demands. She’s signed for a new TV show she hates working on for which, because of a clause in her contract, she gets to pick her own co-star, Walt. Knowing this would be impossible, because of the extra that comes along with Walt, this way she hopes to be kicked out of the show. And Meryl Streep portrays herself in a quasi snobbish, quasi sympathetic way.

Extremely beyond my expectations, Stuck on You wasn’t as dry as I thought it would be. In the end the Farrellys want to be a bit moralistic, but even the situation after Bob and Walt get separated provides a nice tool for even more jokes. But the jokes never get in the way of the story (which may be a bit long but never gets boring). Stuck on You isn’t ground-breaking earth-shaking material but worth the euros nonetheless.

Directed by: Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Meryl Streep, Cher
Official Website

‘Stuck On You’ runs 118 minuntes, is now showing in the US and UK and is released 19 February in the Netherlands