Written and Directed by the Farrelly Brothers, also responsible for Dumb and Dumber, Osmosis Jones, Shallow Hal, and several other comedies. I'm not horribly familiar with their work, but I absolutely adore Stuck on You. I really wasn't expecting much going into it, but it's a genuinely chamring movie. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear star as a set of conjointed twins, joined at the hip, and their experiences in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. While I think it's very easy to be crude about such a topic, this movie is genuinely wholesome. Woven into the fibers of this movie is a story about disability that is upbeat, positive, and genuine.
A ton of the characters are openminded, and even positive about the condition of the twins, and the ones who are mean and rude about their condition are painted as in the wrong. Many characters show genuine kindness and harmless curiousity towards Damon and Kinnear's characers, Bob and Walt. When a character asks about their conjoinment, they matter of factly answer that they share a liver, and it's not made out to be a spectical. In fact the conversation is so casual that it makes it seem normalized. Instead of the character asking about the disability saying something laced with unnessissary pity, she just goes "oh okay" and talks about something else. It's refreshing how normalized disabilites are in this movie.
There are several times where Damon and Kinnear's characters, Bob and Walt, are shown to use their disability as an advantage. In the beginning of the movie, the two are shown to run a burger joint, and are so in synch with each other that they're able to grill burgers and cook meals for customers who think they can get their meals for free if their food takes longer than three minutes. But due to the coordination and skill of Bob and Walt, no one ever seems to get their food for free. There are obviously moments where their disability gets in the way of everyday life, but Bob and Walt always seem to rise to the challenge, meet, and overcome it.
Frankly, I think we just need more comedy drama movies about main characters who are disabled and less depressing dramas. I do not know much about the Farrelly Brothers, but they seem to get that for a disabled person, having a disability is just a normal part of their life, and disabled people do and will figure out how to go about their daily business, and even make their dreams come true. This is a general feel good movie that, while a little goofy (as to be expected from their other films) it's certainly not over the top, has a feel good message championing for disabiled people, and some fun along the way. For the reasons listed and more, Stuck on You is easily one of my favorite comedy films, period.
