Touchstone and Beyond: "Funny Bones"

Feature Presentation: Funny Bones

Cast of Characters

• Oliver Platt as Tommy Fawkes
• Lee Evans as Jack Parker
• Leslie Caron as Katie Parker
• Jerry Lewis as George Fawkes
• Ruta Lee as Laura Fawkes
• George Carl as Thomas Parker
• Freddie Davies as Bruno Parker

Elevator Pitch

Tommy Fawkes is trying to follow in his father George’s footsteps as a comedian. On the night of his debut in Las Vegas, George steals the spotlight, and Tommy runs away to Blackpool, England. 

In Blackpool, Jack Parker is trying to get out of a bad situation. He was part of a deal to smuggle some valuable eggs, but the deal went south, and now Jack is trying to avoid the crooked cops, and the gangsters trying to find him.

When Tommy arrives in Blackpool, a place he was born in and lived for the first six years of his life, he learns that the Parkers are more connected to him than he would have thought. Though the Fawkes’ and Parkers were friends, Tommy learns that Jack is his half-brother. To complicate matters, Tommy also learns that George stole Thomas and Bruno Parker’s act. 

Confronting his father and telling him the truth, Tommy will soon have to contend with the arrival of George, and where his own life is going to go. When the elder Fawkes arrives in Blackpool, Tommy tries to get his dad to atone for the past, while also helping his brother Jack out of his dangerous entanglement. 

The Orson Welles Award of Brilliance

I have yet to find a movie where Oliver Platt is not excellent. Supporting roles, lead roles, he can be anyone and anything. His pained work of trying to live up to the legacy of George, while also making Tommy a unique and intelligent character, would be easily lost by a lesser actor. Oliver Platt is brilliant, and he makes Tommy that empathetic character that this movie really needs.

Jerry Lewis is restrained and doesn’t ham-it-up in the film. Instead, he plays the elder legend with grace and poise but will occasionally show a moment of silliness which makes his character all the more powerful. George isn’t hated by the audience, but we have enough contempt that Lewis is able to magnify in the moments that he is briefly on screen. The scene on the beach where he tells Tommy that he is not funny is so well executed. The tide is out and father and son are walking on an endless ‘desert’ scene. Lewis in a restrained way delivers such a powerful knockout punch to his son that it is heartbreaking and allows the audience to understand the underline basis for all of Tommy’s life choices. Tommy knew that was what his father always felt, and yet still strives to prove him wrong. 

The setting of Blackpool is magical. It feels like a long-lost place, with the possibility of joy just waiting to be found. 

The Alan Smithee Award of Anonymity

The initial scenes with Jack involved in the egg scheme is not needed. I feel like we could have cut that whole subplot, focused exclusively on Tommy and it would have been a tighter film.

Production Team

• Directed by Peter Chelsom
• Produced by Hollywood Pictures
• Written by Peter Chelsom / Peter Flannery
• Release Date: March 31, 1995
• Budget: $8 million 
• Domestic Box Office Gross: $532,268

I Know Their Name

Richard Griffiths plays the tourism official, but everyone who sees him on screen will always know him for his work as Veron Dursley in the Harry Potter movies. 

Deep Dive Behind the Scenes

• Film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film two thumbs up. 
• The opening weekend gross was a paltry $26,946 landing in 18th place.
• The film opened on only 14 screens in North America.
• The Brussels, Paris, and Dinard British Film Festival all rewarded the movie with accolades.
• The London Critics Circle Film Awards rewarded Peter Chelsom with a British producer of the Year Award.
• Oliver Reed had a much more substantial role in the film, but apparently many of his scenes were cut during the editing process.
• Reed faired better than Joanna Lumley, who was cut out of the film altogether. 
• Lee Evans made his first full length feature debut with this film.
• This was also the final film for Ruth Kettlewell and Sadie Corrie.
• Near the climax of the film with Evans climbing the light pole, a camera’s shadow is seen thanks to a powerful spotlight.
• Jerry Lewis had many of his roots in comedy start with vaudeville, similar to the acts on display in the film.
• The film was released on DVD September 2, 2003.

Bill’s Spicy Take

The title is terrible and should have been changed. Even though Jerry Lewis mentions the title in the film I still don’t think it works at capturing the essence of what the movie is. 

Oscar Thoughts

(These rankings are awarded based on my love for Hitchcock films)

{Frenzy Award-Skip this Film, Torn Curtain Award-Desperate for Something to Watch, For the Birds-A Perfect Film for Any Device, Rear Window Award- You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen because this film is cinema.}

Funny Bones is weird, and absurd, funny, and sentimental. The script has some moments of ridiculousness, covered with layers of family heart ache, and a self-aware moment of realizing a son is not as good, or better than their parent. There are layers of life sprinkled throughout the film, and while the cast is incredible, the script and the cast together make for a magical film.

There were moments where I wondered what was happening, and why the filmmakers would approach their movie the way they did, but by the end I was ready to applaud.

I would equate Funny Bones to witnessing a unicorn in the wild. The cast is supremely talented, the concept is unique beyond the standards of what is expected, and the core of the film is resolved perfectly. 

Funny Bones gets my Rear Window Award. This is a film to watch, on a big screen at home, with no distractions.

Coming Attractions

‘Touchstone and Beyond’ will take a summer hiatus and return August 16.