Comedies with Heart

I just got done watching Kingpin. It's not on my top 25 list nor will you find it on almost anyone's list of top/favorite movies. Still there's something about it and other Farrelly movies that I always seem to enjoy. I couldn't pin point it so I decided to watch the director's cut.

I found out what the difference is between their comedies and the rest of the comedic filmmakers around today. I can explain it in one word... HEART!

The Farrelly brothers talked about this concept a lot in the director's cut of Kingpin. Think back to their other movies like There's Something About Marry. The movie wouldn't work as well if the audience didn't care for Ben Stiller's character.

It's the same thing with Dumb and Dumber. One of the Farrelly brothers mentioned how when Jim Carrey's character "Loyd Christmas" sold a bird with its head cutoff to a blind kid to raise money for his trip to Aspen, it wouldn't have sat well with the audience if it wasn't for an earlier scene when he broke down saying how he's got nothing in life and crying on the shoulder of his only friend.

This pattern of making the audience really "feel" for the characters is present in all of their movies. They also believe it makes the jokes work. I agree because I can now see the difference between their movies and newer comedies like Dodgeball for example. Let's be serious, at least in my opinion, who really cared about Vince Vaughan's character or anybody from Average Joe's Gym? I think of how I felt when they won at the end and saved the gym. I didn't care at all. I just wanted to se more of Ben Stiller's wife in real life make out with more chicks. Now when I think about the ending to There's Something About Marry, I really wanted Ben Stiller to be with Cameron Diaz. That emotional attachment to the characters is the reason I enjoy Farrelly brothers movies so much.