It isn't good enough, it isn't smart enough, and, doggone it, most people won't like Stuart Saves His Family.
Stuart Saves His Family (1995)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 7
Rotten:17
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 37 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Veteran 12-stepper Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) has a successful cable-access show until his worst nightmare comes true: He's moved to the dreaded 2:45 a.m. slot, a fate worse than death in the TV... Veteran 12-stepper Stuart Smalley (Al Franken) has a successful cable-access show until his worst nightmare comes true: He's moved to the dreaded 2:45 a.m. slot, a fate worse than death in the TV world. Eventually Stuart's show is canceled, and he must face unemployment with the help of his various 12-step sponsors. Just when he is as low as he can possibly get, he is forced to face his completely dysfunctional family for a funeral back home in Minnesota. This hotbed of addictive and compulsive behavior includes an alcoholic father (Harris Yulin), a passive mom (Shirley Knight), an overeating sister (Leslie Boone), and an all-around addict brother (Vincent D'onofrio). All of this bad behavior is almost too much for the recovered Stuart, as he is forced to face his family's weaknesses as they all battle to understand one another. Through a series of familial disasters and increasingly dysfunctional behavior, Stuart must decide whether his family is worth saving or if he must leave them all behind for good. Director Harold Ramis has successfully taken the popular SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE skit and turned it into a charming little movie that is littered with small surprises throughout. [More]
Starring: Al Franken, Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Shirley Knight
Starring: Al Franken, Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Shirley Knight, Harris Yulin, Lesley Boone, Julia Sweeney, Phil Hartman, Marjorie Lovett, Ted Raimi
Director: Harold Ramis
Director: Harold Ramis
Screenwriter: Al Franken
Producer: Lorne Michaels, Trevor Albert, C.O. Erickson, Dinah Minot
Composer: Marc Shaiman
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Reviews for Stuart Saves His Family
Often funny, darker than you'd expect, and firmly grounded in Franken's extensive experience of the 12-Step worldview.
Even if you find Franken hard to bear, as I do, the movie's take on how he functions in the world is both authoritative and compelling, and the movie steadily grows in stature.
Those familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous' 12-step recovery programme may bond in sympathy. The sentimentality, however, doesn't play.
The plotting is surprisingly banal, involving even talk of a property easement and turning Stuart into the executor of a relative's estate. And the relatives' problems are taken semi-seriously, which is more than this lightweight film can handle.
Though it misfires, this spoof of recovery programs should be noted for its sincerity.
It was much funnier when we didn't see Stuart's family. And, if we have to see them, it would have been much funnier if they were strait-laced '50s sitcom types.
Director Harold Ramis and Franken, who wrote the script, do manage to give Stuart some dimension, however, and though he still seems like a skit (and shtick) character in places, he is also quite affecting.
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