Where I come from, “Funny Farm” is another name for “Mental Hospital”, and there’s certainly been a few times I thought I’d end up in one. My sister has infuriated me on a number of occasions, and there’s endless other situations that have driven me batty over the years. Writing has always been a stress reliever for me, so the premise of this film drew me in straight away.
Chevy Chase plays Andy Farmer, a sports journalist who, along with his wife Elizabeth (Madolyn Smith-Osborne) moves from the city into the small town of Redbud to pursue his dream of writing America’s next great novel. However, right from the outset, things go wrong for the Farmers. The movers get lost. Elizabeth finds a coffin in the garden. Andy can’t seem to make any friends, and when he does buy a dog, it runs away.
There really is no plot to Funny Farm. It’s a lot of gags strung together, all with the common element of trying to fit in to rural town life. It’s not that Andy and Elizabeth aren’t trying, they’re just very unlucky. So many things go wrong for them, and what seems like the right thing to do in a certain situation just seems to make things worse.
Unfortunately, the problems Andy and Elizabeth are having are also putting a strain on their marriage, especially when Elizabeth would seem to be becoming more successful than Andy. As events unfold and the Farmers realize country life may not be as easy as they thought, one is left wondering if two people could really be this unlucky.
What makes Funny Farm a pleasant, if not good film, is the assortment of characters sprinkled throughout the town. The mailman might not show his face until the final third, but he makes his presence known as do the rest of the cast who are really only supporting characters, even to the extent you’d be lucky if you see many of them twice. Each character seems to be used effectively as a separate gag, but you can forget about any kind of character development.
The same can really be said for Elizabeth, who never grows at all. She starts writing at one stage, but I got the impression she’s been a writer all along. Her occupation was never revealed, but I’m betting on housewife. Andy’s persona was built on a little, but not much.
It’s not a bad film though, as several gags are successfully pulled off, with the residents of Redbud contributing to this.
Chevy Chase gives a decent performance as Andy Farmer, the sports journalist turned writer, getting to make good use of the full emotional scale: joy when exploring every nook and cranny of his new home, impatience while waiting on the movers, frustration after the fishing contest, insanity whilst dealing with the postman, or even full-blown anger.
Elizabeth is the closest thing to a second main character, but even she seems to take a rather large backseat in the grand scheme of things, without even a picture on the DVD cover despite the fact she’s Andy’s wife. The film is pretty much all about Andy. Andy has trouble making friends. Andy decides to buy a dog. Moving to the country in the first place was for Andy to fulfil his dream of becoming an author. Looking at that, it’s easy to see why Elizabeth takes such a backseat, but perhaps the film would have been somewhat more fun of it was centred more around both characters instead of just one.
In saying that, Elizabeth, for the most part, is a very enjoyable character. Mandolyn Smith-Osborne plays the part well on the brief occasions we’re allowed a glimpse into Elizabeth’s life. Sometimes, she just seems to emote either the same as what Chase does – when he’s angry at her she’s angry at him, and she can do a screaming match as well as the best of them. Other times, she emotes the opposite, and she can go to either end of the emotional scale if need be.
The setting for the Farmer’s house is lush, green surroundings, which suits the mood of the film, about new beginnings and growth and such. Redbud itself looks like a typical small country town. We’re not shown very much of it – a ball park, a restaurant, an antiques shop and a lake, but it’s the feel of the town that makes the difference. It seems to have a nice atmosphere to it, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else, and any newcomers, such as Andy and Elizabeth are immediately on the outside.
Funny Farm can be funny at times, but it gets less so the more times you watch it. After seeing it for about the fifth time recently, the novelty has worn off seeing Andy hook a fellow fisherman by the neck, or try to cross the threshold with Elizabeth in his arms and only then discovering they have split doors, or Andy and Elizabeth being told to deposit money into their phone to find out there’s no slot.
While Funny Farm is short on such film mechanisms as plot and character development, it does contain a few laughs and is fun to watch, but it’s hardly very memorable.
Watchable, but that’s about it. Certainly not worth spending a lot of money on.
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