by MATTHEW HAYS

There's something fundamentally weird about watching a Farrelly Brothers movie. Weird but, as it turns out, also quite wonderful. The fraternal filmmaking team manages to make crass, stupid, lurid jokes, while also maintaining a heart and evoking old-fashioned schmaltz. That's no easy balance, and the Farrellys might just have perfected it.

Their latest, Stuck on You, appears - from the trailers anyway - to be a simple, one-note, single-gag feature. Surprise, surprise, it's not. Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play conjoined twins (commonly but incorrectly also referred to as Siamese twins). Kinnear aspires to be an actor; Damon has horrific stage fright. There's something terribly inspired about having Kinnear performing Tru (the one-man show about Truman Capote) while Damon sweats buckets. It's but one of a bunch of gags that are as endearing as they are silly.

The two leave their east-coast digs to head off to Tinseltown, as Kinnear desperately wants to pursue a career on the big screen. Yes, it's as foolish as it sounds, but the Farrellys manage to wrap this ostensibly obvious fish-out-of-water set-up with a tortured romance and a zany Hollywood insider spoof.

The cast is excellent, which helps things along, but Farrelly brilliance occurs with their choice of Cher, who here plays herself. (Considering the extent of her career and cosmetic surgery, self-parody is really the only acting option the woman has left.) Cher is flat-out hilarious here, playing it up as a self-centred, spoiled, conniving star, describing herself at one point as "a bitch with a capital C."

In true Farrelly style, Stuck on You will have you laughing despite yourself. Some have raised questions about the way the filmmakers have represented the disabled, but that ambiguity in tone is part of their talent. Not only are Farrelly films surprising, entertaining and weird, they are probably the only filmmakers (singular or plural) who have defiantly and consistently handed various roles to disabled actors. They've certainly gained a lot of additional credibility as comedic filmmakers in recent years, and frankly, they deserve it.

Stuck on You opens Friday, Dec. 12

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