STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY
A film review by Andrew Hicks
Copyright 1995 Andrew Hicks / Fatboy Productions
(**1/2 out of four)
Just when you think the practice of turning recurring "Saturday Night Live" characters into feature films has gotten completely out of hand (i.e., IT'S PAT: THE MOVIE), you stumble upon a warm-hearted comedy that turns what was previously a one-note character into a decent movie. I'm sure we're all familiar with Stuart Smalley (alter-ego of "SNL" writer/performer Al Franken), the effeminate sweater-wearing host of the public-access show "Daily Affirmation." This movie gives us access to Stuart away from the cameras of his TV show, into his private life (and day job as a waiter).
Stuart's show gets cancelled and, after six days of curling up in bed eating Fig Newton's (I like the cranberry ones myself), he gets more bad news--his favorite aunt is dead. So he makes a trip home to see his dysfunctional family: alcoholic dad, codependant mom, overeater sister and pot-addict brother. Coming home, he realizes it's going to take more than saying the usual 12-step cliches like "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt" to fix the mess his family is in. But gosh darn it, he'll try.
STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY is probably the only "Saturday Night Live" movie with any heart of human quality to offset the barrage of bad jokes. It has some genuinely dramatic moments and also some genuinely funny ones, most of which involve Stuart's flashbacks to the days he was tormented for being an obese child. I'm not sure exactly why I can identify with that but I can...
-- Visit the Movie Critic at LARGE website at http://www.missouri.edu/~c667778/movies.html
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