Stuck on You *** (2003, Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher) – Classic Movie Review 1774

The Farrelly Brothers Peter and Bobby keep up their reputation for bad-taste comedy in the 2003 film Stuck on You by resurrecting their 12-year-old script about a pair of conjoined twins forced to share a life (‘we’re not Siamese twins, we’re American!’).

They run the Quikee Burger bar in West Coast America’s Martha’s Vineyard, till one day one of them, shy Bo (Matt Damon), talks the other, extrovert would-be actor Walt (Greg Kinnear), into going to Hollywood to become a star, and they find success and love after winning a job on Cher’s TV show.

Non-comedians Kinnear and Damon are not obvious casting as the contrasting twins, Walt and Bob. But the skilled, likeable duo display a warm chemistry and a keen sense of humour, skating round any awkward downsides of this largely good-natured movie that’s more of a sweet fairy tale than the crude gross-out comedy it could have been when Jim Carrey was going to do it.

Nice to have Cher back, too, after a longish gap, gamely sending herself up as the bitchy TV cop series star who hires Kinnear, thinking she’ll have a flop show and be able to get out of her contract. Meryl Streep has a good time too, also playing herself, and enjoying a great musical finale with Kinnear: a theatre show of Bonnie and Clyde. The only thing is, it’s a bit of a one-joke comedy, and some of the gags are desperately weak. But, still, overall it’s funny and likeable. Griffin Dunne also appears as himself, here directing Cher’s TV show.

Stuck on You is marred by one use of a derogatory term for homosexuals, ‘f*g’.

Damon said in a statement on 2 August 2021: ‘During a recent interview, I recalled a discussion I had with my daughter where I attempted to contextualize for her the progress that has been made – though by no means completed – since I was growing up in Boston and, as a child, heard the word ‘f*g’ used on the street before I knew what it even referred to. I explained that that word was used constantly and casually and was even a line of dialogue in a movie of mine as recently as 2003.’

The  cast are Matt Damon as Bob Tenor, Greg Kinnear as Walt Tenor, Cher as Herself, Eva Mendes as April Mercedes, Wen Yann Shih as May Fong, Pat Crawford Brown as Mimmy, Ray Valliere as Rocket, Tommy Songin as Tommy, Terence Bernie Hines as Moe Neary, Jackie Flynn as Howard, Seymour Cassel as Morty O’Reilly, Stephen Saux as Drive-by Heckler, Danny Murphy as Dicky, Steve Tyler as Detective Reney, Dane Cook as Officer Fraioli, Lin Shaye as Makeup Babe, Bella Thorne as MV Sideline, Tracy Ashton as Casting Agent #2, and Jessica Cauffiel as Debbie.

Also there are cameo appearances by Griffin Dunne, Jay Leno, Ricky Williams, Ben Carson (as head surgeon), Cameron Diaz, Mary Hart, Fernanda Lima, Frankie Muniz, Meryl Streep, Luke Wilson as Himself, Jesse Ventura, Tom Brady, and Lawyer Milloy.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1774

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