Funny Bones

''Funny Bones'' is a 1995 comedy-drama film from Hollywood Pictures. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Chelsom, co-produced by Simon Fields, and co-written by Peter Flannery. The music score was by John Altman, and cinematography by Eduardo Serra. ''Funny Bones'' was released in the United States on 31 March 1995.

Set in Las Vegas and Blackpool, England, the film stars Oliver Platt, Jerry Lewis, Lee Evans, Leslie Caron, Richard Griffiths, Sadie Corre, Oliver Reed, George Carl, Freddie Davies and Ian McNeice. When the film was released in the United Kingdom, it reached #8 in the Top 10.

Plot

Tommy Fawkes is the son of British comedy legend George Fawkes. After his own Las Vegas comedy act flops with his beloved father in the audience, Tommy returns to Blackpool, the English seaside resort where he spent the summers of his childhood.

Disguised with a new identity, Tommy intends to seek out unique performers and purchase their acts. During this time, Tommy encounters his father's old comedy partners, Bruno and Thomas Parker. Once great performers, they now work as ghouls on a ghost train at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Circus.

Bruno's son Jack is a brilliant comic, but psychologically troubled. He has also been manipulated by a corrupt policeman known as Sharkey into stealing valuable wax eggs from smugglers. Tommy meets Jack's mother Katie, and even though Tommy is in disguise, she suspects that he is somehow connected to the family.

Tommy eventually realises that his father stole his original act from the Parker brothers. He then reveals himself to be Tommy Fawkes and Katie tells him that Jack is his half-brother. Tommy phones his father about the revelation and George gets on the next plane to Blackpool.

As part of their reconciliation, George arranges for the Parkers to top the bill at a Blackpool Tower Circus event. However, Jack is still hounded by Sharkey and cannot perform. During an elaborate Egyptian act, Katie gets rid of Sharkey via a sarcophagus, which is then kidnapped by the smugglers. The wax eggs (the Chinese inscription on egg is read "Eight Immortals") contained a mystical, ancient Chinese rejuvenating powder. Jack had previously placed the powder within a makeup tin, which Bruno and Thomas accidentally use, helping them to perform brilliantly.

Toward the end of the show, Jack is seen being chased by a policeman and climbing a giant flexible pole to escape. The pole rocks side to side and Jack spins around on the flexing pole, and smacks the climbing policeman in the face. The policeman begins to fall and is revealed to be Tommy.

In the last moments, Jack clasps Tommy's hand and saves him, both now wildly swinging around at the end of pole. The circus audience claps wildly with relief. Jack yells to Tommy, "I think they're beginning to like you." Jack laughs and Tommy, suddenly no longer afraid, waves at the audience spinning past and laughs joyfully.

Cast

Home media

''Funny Bones'' was released on DVD on 2 September 2003.

Reception

In ''Empire'', Andrew Collins gave the film 4/5 stars, writing: "Although Evans for many will be the film's selling point (and he turns in a delightfully demented performance, if a touch lax of Northern accent), it is the downbeat, timeless originality of Chelsom and Peter Flannery's story that marks it out for immortality. Not just a patronising pop at old-school vaudeville entertainers (although the freakshow audition scene is cruel fun), it is a beautifully written thesis on the in-built tragedy of laughter and the pain of nostalgia: 'Why do all the best things in life belong to the past?' A tower de force."

A.L. Kennedy wrote in ''The Observer'': "''Funny Bones'' is steadfast in its exploration of every possible type of funny: funny that's stupid, skilful, angry, delighted, intellectual, insane; funny that's subjective, personal, insightful; funny that plays with body parts and stares at death, defies it; funny that defies life – its losses, its wounds, its despair; stolen, denied, abandoned and rediscovered funny. It's all here."

Leonard Klady wrote in ''Variety'': "Homage, memory and unabashed zaniness infect ''Funny Bones''. It’s a tour de force for filmmaker Peter Chelsom, who chronicles a complex saga of vaudeville and shtick, pathos and absurdity. One can only quarrel with the density of the effort, which stuffs far too much story and sideshow into its modest frame. ... ''Funny Bones'' is an amusement park ride whose demands are often exhausting. But the experience culminates on a heady, spiritually satisfying note."

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 63%, based on 19 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10.

References

External links

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{{Peter Chelsom

1995 films
1995 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
British comedy-drama films
Films set in Blackpool
Hollywood Pictures films
Films directed by Peter Chelsom
Films scored by John Altman (composer)
1990s English-language films
1990s American films
1990s British films
English-language comedy-drama films