Rent Funny Bones (1995)

Bones of Contention - Funny Bones review by griggs

Peter Chelsom’s 1995 oddity is the kind of film you want to love more than you ever quite manage. A British-American curio about comedy dynasties, the sins of the fathers and Blackpool’s faded seaside sadness, it swings at something strange — and only now and then connects.

Oliver Platt plays Tommy Fawkes, a failing Vegas comic who heads to Blackpool to dig into the roots of his father’s act. What he finds is the Parker family: a troupe of old-school vaudevillians with a secret tied to his own. Lee Evans, all rubber limbs and haunted eyes, is the one real revelation, with Freddie “Parrotface” Davies and George Carl adding proper texture. Jerry Lewis as Tommy’s father is either inspired casting or some private joke from the gods, and the film never quite decides which.

When Funny Bones leans into physical comedy and the eerie poetry of English resorts in decline, it briefly sings. The rest of the time it lurches between tones like a drunk on the prom.

Slow build up but a feast by the end - Funny Bones review by AM

Under the category "Comedy", it starts pretty gruesomely, but there are some very funny scenes. It is less comedy than a film about father-son dynamics. Jerry Lewis is brilliant, and there is a big dose of suspense as well. Lee Evans is not my favourite comic but here he has a part with real depth and darkness, which he rises to really well.