STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY. Directed by Harold Ramis; written by Al Franken; produced by Lorne Michaels and Trevor Albert for Paramount. Starring Al Franken. Rated PG-13.
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"I laughed 'till I cried" is usually a good recommendation for a comedy. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way in Stuart Saves His Family, another in a long, undistinguished line of "Saturday Night Live" skits blown up into movies.
The problem with Stuart is that you laugh (a little) and then you cry (a fair amount). And, surprisingly, since Franken (Stuart Smalley) is a funny, funny guy, the crying parts are actually more effective than the laughing parts. When you go to a movie expecting high hilarity, you're bound to be disappointed by tearjerking, no matter how well it's done.
At the beginning of the movie, when we're just looking at Stuart's neurotic world by itself, Stuart is quite amusing. Scenes with his cable access channel boss, and with a secretary who is even more messed up than Stuart, are funny, as are the first few scenes involving Stuart's family. (Fans of Franken's TV persona, veteran of more 12-step programs than you thought existed in the world, won't be surprised to learn that he comes from a truly dysfunctional family.)
But then, two things happen. First, the script veers away from the "Saturday Night Live" tone and starts to get us involved with the Smalleys as people. And, as a consequence, we get to know them better. And it's harder to laugh at the plight of friends, as opposed to strangers.
The makers of Stuart miscalculated badly not only by letting the script get progressively more serious. They also made the mistake of casting real, talented and interesting actors as members of the Smalley family, rather than comedians like Franken. The more we get to know these characters, the more tragic and less comic their plight becomes. Until not even Stuart's lisping, satiric narration can coax another laugh out of us.
Vincent D'Onofrio is Stuart's shiftless brother Donnie, for example (and the only one of the family actually saved by Stuart, it seems—a small quibble with the movie's title). D'Onofrio (and the script) create more and more sympathy for his character by gradually giving him more and more depth and admirable qualities. By the half-way point in the movie, we already can't laugh at him any more.
The same is true, though the performances aren't as strong, of Harris Yulin as Stuart's dad and Shirley Knight as his mom. The only family member, besides Stuart himself, of course, who can still get us to chuckle occasionally is Lesley Boone as his sister.
But almost as soon as we've met her, we feel pretty uncomfortable laughing at any of the Smalley family foibles. We've been drawn into their lives too intimately. Comedy requires detachment, and Stuart's family just doesn't let us keep our distance.
April 26, 1995