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Why the Farrellys resort to gross humor | osmosis_l
GOOD 'TOON Rock voices Osmosis, who dreams of superheroism
By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

For the filmmaking Farrelly brothers Peter and Bobby, grossness may not be next to godliness, but it's definitely a form of meditation on the way of all flesh: Even the highest and mightiest are subject to noises, odors, and functions of the body usually left out of the picture in Merchant Ivory films. Besides, as everyone knows from toddler to Boomer to the Klumps, those squeaks and fluids are funny, and break the ice among moviegoers.

I pontificate on body parts because ''Osmosis Jones,'' the Farrellys' unruly new comedy that opens Aug. 10 is besotted with the inner rot in each of us. It's about a middle aged man, played with bilious conviction by Bill Murray, who takes such terrible care of himself -- eating crap, never exercising -- that infection sets in. When it does, though, the hard working machinery of the human body kicks in, rallying with awesome, computer animated efficiency and elegance to clean up the mess.

The movie is witty and scruffy, crude and medically sophisticated, featuring a strong cast of voice over actors (among them Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, William Shatner, and David Hyde Pierce) and a profusion of throw away visual and verbal puns and jokes of the flesh, told with swift animated artistry.

Sometimes, it's true, I wanted to look away, particularly when it came to close ups of a giant, menacing zit on Murray's mottled, unshaven, baggy face. (At the very least, the actor deserves props for letting the camera zoom in so close to such unpretty physical seediness.) But mostly, I was fascinated by the appreciative abandon with which ''Osmosis Jones'' wallows in gross body function. The movie's energy is all the more tonic when compared with so many of the more sanitized, more anemic productions thrown our way this summer.

This is, after all, a summer marked by apes, mummies, dinosaurs, a robot boy, a cartoon action heroine, and a green ogre named Shrek. In other words, there's not a flesh and blood human with whom to identify among them. This is a summer where the characters in big dramas -- ''Pearl Harbor,'' say -- never convince us that they really ooze, bleed, fart, or bruise. And where the characters in big comedies -- ''America's Sweethearts,'' say -- tire us because they're so full of... well, let's say, so full of themselves. Where celebrities coordinate their breakdowns with their publicists. And where we, the people, are revolting, at least at the box office.

''Osmosis Jones'' says, hey, EVERYONE's full of it, and isn't that fascinating? Take a look! It's honest and genial and the opposite of hypocritical: It courses with life, warts and all.

What do you think?


Posted Aug 10, 2001 | Order Article Reprints
 

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