Back almost 10 years ago, in the days of Saturday Night Live when Dana Carvey, Mike Myers and Phil Hartman were part of the cast, there was a little sketch that would show up every 3 or 4 weeks, late in the show, starring Al Franken. It was called "Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley".

A lot of people I knew considered it a pretty lame sketch, but I couldn't help but laugh at the thing the entire time it was on. The lead-in voice-over to the show was enough to get me smiling: "Stuart Smalley is a member of numerous 12-step programs, but is NOT a licensed therapist."

"Stuart Saves His Family" is an extension of this sketch. What makes this one of the better movies that has sprung out of SNL is the fact that the character of Stuart is fleshed out a lot more, which is of course necessary when turning a 5 minute sketch into a 90 minute movie. Too many SNL movies keep the characters one-dimensional, failing to recognize that what intelligent movie-goers want is some character depth along with the laughs.

Stuart has a public access cable show where he is a sensitive male trying to help people through the problems of their life caused by alcoholism, overeating, drugs, etc. He gets fired because he gets upset over a time slot change on the air and calls his boss (I'm paraphrasing here...) "an ugly fat cow with a bad haircut."

At the same time, his family is in trouble due to a death of a relative and inheritance issues, not to mention the personal problems each of them have. His father (and all the men in his family) is a raging alcoholic, his mother is a stifled homebody, his sister is a chronic overeater, and his brother is a potsmoking layabout.

Stuart tries to solve his professional and family crises through caring and feeling words, which continually get him into more trouble.

You may be saying to yourself, "This doesn't sound very funny..." You're partly right. Those who have seen the sketch on TV understand that the humour of Stuart Smalley has never been slapstick, or bathroom humour, or putting people down, although there is a hilarious scene involving a coffin, and another involving a hunting accident.

It's a subtle humour. Like when his mother asks who he is talking with on the phone and he tells her it is one of his 12-step program sponsors, because he comes from such a screwed up family, and she says "Oh, ok." Or, in a scene he's depressed about losing his job and won't come out of his apartment, Stuart tells his friends to come back when he has run out of Fig Newtons.

This type of humour isn't for everyone, but for those who like it, this movie is worth it. Very funny, with some serious issues dealt with in an appropriate way.

In case you're not convinced it's a good movie, take a look at the cover in the video store... Siskel & Ebert gave it "two thumbs up". Smart guys, those two.



Recommended: Yes