Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
JOHN ROBIE has been associated with the Farrelly Brothers for a little while now, and because of that, we recently had a very interesting opportunity. We went to see two different test screenings of SAY IT ISN'T SO, held a week apart, and saw two radically different cuts of the film. As a result, we got a look at the sort of detail work that the Farrellys are so good at, the way they use the test screening process to their own best advantage, listening to their audience carefully. I'll be sharing my thoughts on the process and the film later in the week, but first up, here's Robie, straight from the Monkey Bar Room at the John Robie Cathouse...
I know the guys that made Say It Isn’t So, the new Farrelly Brothers produced comedy starring Chris Klein and Heather Graham. Actually I know “the guys” as in the Farrelly Brothers, and I know the director, J.B. Rodgers, and I know the writers Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow and I know a lot of the crew that worked on the film. I know all the producers, have done work for most of them, and am actually sitting here writing this piece on this computer in this small California apartment in large part due to my relationship with the group. I saw the film – saw the film twice in the past week – because of my connection with the people at Conundrum Entertainment, the Farrelly’s production company, and now I’ve got to put all the feelings I have for the gang aside and review the movie. I don’t have to, actually. I could just skip out, tell all involved that I was simply too busy to be bothered with writing up a story on the film and get by on a few handshakes and promises that yes, it’s good but there’re problems but I really wouldn’t worry. I could do that.
No I couldn’t.
Gilly Nobel (Chris Klein) has just fallen in love with the prettiest gal in town, Jo (Heather Graham), and the two look like a match maid in heaven. Then Gilly finds out that Jo is his long lost sister. And then the two break up. And then Gilly finds out that Jo really isn’t his sister, and Gilly’s got to go find Jo, got to make sure she doesn’t marry a schmucky businessman, and got to profess his love to her. And while Gilly’s looking and longing damn near everyone thinks he’s a perverted sister fucker.
The movie is funny. The movie has some problems. They aren’t the cut-this-cut-that-presto-we’re-fixed kind of problems, either. The movie isn’t really any kind of step forward for the Farrellys, either; it’s the kind of film that will elicit the backhanded “more of the glorious same” compliment from critics that think they’re way more clever than they really are. Moving forward in comedy is a hell of a lot tougher than moving forward in drama, mind you; moving forward in comedy almost always means moving into uncharted territory. Drama just has to get deeper and more personal. Say It Isn’t So feels like a bit of a final kick for the Farrelly Brothers before they take that step forward, before they start to tackle projects that by their very definition shouldn’t work, that should be so crass they’re caustic, that, God willing, they’ll somehow make work. Then again, Say It Isn’t So is a comedy about incest. Safe thy name sure ain’t Farrelly. Thank God.
Klein is all blank eyed stares and changing hairstyles and someone should’ve shook him awake because he sleeps through most of the film. There’s the first mark against the movie, and someone else keep track of these because by the end of writing this piece I’m going to be quite drunk. Heather Graham is Jo, and while she looks very nice there’s really no kick in the pants greatness about her; she’s just a hot chick that’s only teasingly sexy. Sally Field plays Jo’s mother, and she’s all wrong here. She’s playing way too excited, like she’s been given a chance to show us all just how oddball she can be. She’s all forced goofiness.
Yet even though there are problems there’s a life to this thing. There’re big laughs, there’s a reason to care about the people involved and call me crazy but if a comedy has both heart and laughs then it has already won. Heart is a word that gets bandied about a whole lot with comedies these days. “You’ve got to have heart, there’s got to be a heart.” Hell I’m guilty of slinging all the emotions on the heart deal, writing of how a film has to have a big fat glowing soul to matter. Well sure…but there is a such thing as emoting in moderation. We don’t need to be crying with Gilly when he learns that the love of his life is his sister. We do need to get the punch in the stomach when we find out that the girl Gilly’s been shtooping is his sis, though, and sometimes that gut feeling of “oh holy hell…” is enough. You want things to get better for Gilly, and that’s what works so well in Say It Isn’t So; it’s not so much that we’re rooting with all our heart and soul for Gilly and Jo to get together. We just want to see things set right before the credits roll because man, if they aren’t what a bummer.
J.B. Rogers has been the Farrelly’s first assistant director since Dumb & Dumber. He’s actually racked up quite an impressive non-Farrelly related first AD resume, working on everything from American Pie to Sorority House Massacre II. The man gnashed his teeth working for Roger Corman, and how cool is that?. Say It Isn’t So is J.B.’s first major directing gig, and he’s a competent comedy director. He doesn’t fall into the trap of having way too many close ups, he doesn’t linger on plot points and he knows how to sell a joke. Rogers’ biggest talent lay in the character work, though; if you know what to look for you know when a director pulls a performance out of an actor, and there are a few scenes in Say It Isn’t So that benefit greatly from Rogers’ hand. He can’t change the fact that Klein isn’t nearly as engaging as he should have been, but a big part of why we end up caring about Gilly’s plight is because of Rogers’ work.
The film doesn’t come out for a few weeks, and there are a few little things that could stand to be tightened up. I’m sure Moriarty is going to mention the pot dealer deal (it’s his observation and he’s right and I’ll let him get into it) and we were both in agreement on the fact that Sarah Silverman needs to email me her phone number and pictures of herself pronto. The nakeder the better. Moriarty thought I shouldn’t have typed that last bit there, but he’s five miles away and can’t force me to change anything so go screw. Silverman and the rest of the supporting cast turn in nice performances. Richard Jenkins is great but hell, he’s always great. 54 movies and counting. Impressive. Jenkins’ next film is the Coen Brothers’ barber shop noir flick. The man goes from the Farrelly Brothers to the Coen Brothers and he kicks fucking ass because of it. So does Orlando Jones in the first film role that actually takes advantage of his comedic talents. Office Space doesn’t count because the role was smaller than this sentence. Jones is genuinely funny as Dig, a crazy pilot. A crazy pilot that’s something like a riff on Jimi Hendrix. I think…I dunno what he’s supposed to be, but he’s funny and that’s good enough.
And that’s what most of Say It Isn’t So is: good enough. Some of it is above and beyond, and there’re a few big laughs. It’s still missing that special, humbling charm that Mary had, and it’s not anywhere near as strong as Kingpin. What it’s got, though, is that real-unique-in-Hollywood, real-common-and-real-welcome-amongst-your-friends sense of goofy, crazy, boundless comedy. Is it any kind of masterpiece? Fuck no, and it’s not trying to be. Is it funny, and does it matter? Yes and yes. So I guess I was wrong; those two things make it more than good enough.
There’re laughs here that you’ll take with you long after the film has stopped flickering, and the lasting laugh is one of the highest compliments I could hope to pay this or any other comedy. You might have to wade through some rather pedestrian plotting and character work to get to them – through Eddie Cibrian’s of-course-he’s-a-bad-guy bad guy, through Brent Hinkley’s of-course-he’s-a-stupid-hick stupid hick – but the wait is worth it. You expect that weird mix of stupidity crossed with wit from a movie with the Farrelly Brothers’ name on it – and the stupid part is always cleverly calculated, never accidental – and Say It Isn’t So, for the most part, skates the pond with a fun, reckless abandon. It falls through the ice a few times, but the film is never nearly as bad as this metaphor.
I laughed at the gal with the things on her tats. I laughed at Gilly asking Jo if she has a robot. I laughed at the cows and I laughed at Orlando Jones. I laughed because halfway through the film I knew that I’d be able to write a positive piece, and I laughed because the last five minutes are so perfectly in tune with the feel of the rest of the movie that even a rabid anti-Farrelly filmgoer will be won over by the genuine charm resting just beneath the filthy ridiculousness. I laughed because I saw Rogers and the Farrellys go from a cut of the film that was stilted and disjointed to a final cut that’s charming and flows and which espouses a confidence on the part of Rogers that’s rare in a first time director. I laughed because for once I was seeing people use the fucking test screening process the right way.
Maybe some of this is the type of thing none of you will get, that you could never possibly appreciate because you don’t quite know what happened and what changed and how the movie came to be what it is. Then again I’m the one writing about the film. My experience with it, not yours, and I can only hope that you get at least a sliver of the enjoyment out of it that I did. I’m pretty sure you will.
