Eye Candy #336 - "The Impostors"

The Impostors:  The problem with farce movies is that are either really, really good or really, really mediocre/bad. I think part of this stems from having seen so many well done farces, pratfalls, etc. in the Marx Brothers movies, Buster Keaton, the 3 Stooges that contemporary takes will be unfairly compared to the "classics" in terms of quality. But it also stems from the fact that there is a conceit upon which the farce is founded - at least someone in it tends to be in on the the joke. Look at the Marx Bros. for several perfect examples of this. Farces that are played straight tend to fall flat, and frankly that's what happens in "The Impostors". Tucci and Platt are two out-of-work starving actors who run afoul of a "diva" actor (played by Alfred Molina) and stow away accidentally on a boat to evade him, but then find themselves in several plots involving other people on the boat. For a comedy, the laughs are few and far between for one that is loaded with some incredibly funny people (Billy Connolly is about the only one that does well, as the sexually ambigious tennis pro). The script seems to limit the actors, rather than launch them into the hijinks. It's similar in tone to "Noises Off", another farce that was oddly lethargic on screen (as opposed to frenetic onstage). Woodchuck sez "No great shakes."