Farrelly Predictable.

Imagine a really bad Farrelly Brothers film and you can pretty much get the idea of "Say It Isn't So." It's so bad that the title actually uses the correct and proper grammar. Why isn't this film called "Say It Ain't So?" I will tell you; because the filmmakers are just that far off the mark, just enough to not get it.

The film revolves around Chris Klein as a mealy-mouthed and stupid-as-pie orphan who falls in love with a Heather Graham. Klein is horribly miscast. He obviously got the job because he was in "American Pie" but what the filmmakers don't get (example #2) is that HE WASN'T THE FUNNY ONE IN AMERICAN PIE. Ahem... dumbasses. Klein is supposed to be trying to find his long lost birth mother and, after sleeping with Graham, discovers that his mother is also her mother and that they are brother and sister. OhmiGod! He has slept with his sister. Basically a one-joke plot (that goes on and on) evolves from this idea. And everyone tries so Goddamn hard to make it funny that it often falls lamely to the roadside.

Klein is so ineffectual and so bad here that we long for the horrid Orlando Jones character to come on screen. Jones is forced to play a Jimi Hendrix clone named Digs, a paraplegic pilot who is usually stoned out of his gourd. Graham, meanwhile, tries her best to be cute and is generally able to succeed. But she walked into the film looking cute! She gains nothing by being in this film. It is a career misstep. Sally Field is the only one who seems to have fun here playing a white-trash matriarch who is as goofy and as obvious as can be. At least she seems to realize that the film is crap and just has a blast anyway.

The filmmaker here, director James B. Rogers, and scripters Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow, all worked with the Farrelly's on "Me Myself and Irene." And Rogers, a Second Unit guy who finally gets a chance here, worked on "American Pie." Apparently they have only learned the obvious from the brothers: Gross out the audience and include the kind of sexual antics and dirty words you might hear on a playground. What they didn't realize is that you have to have characters people like and a story that people care about. "Say It Isn't So" is so lame that it actually tries to make you believe that people would give a damn if someone fucked their own sister. Haven't these assholes seen "Springer?" Nobody gives a fuck but the TV studio audience and they only care because they are on camera,

Using every type of tasteless joke they can think of, the filmmakers go for fart jokes, shit jokes, animal fornication jokes, redneck jokes (those critics who thought "O Brother Where Art Thou" showcased rednecks in a poor light ain't seen nothing!), incest jokes, you name it. Although occassionally funny, the film is mainly an embarrassing mess that the Farrelly's should have politely asked to have their names removed from. They produce here and polished the script, not taking credit on film for the latter. It is obvious that there funny jokes are what make the film hilarious at times. Briefly.

Rogers is no filmmaker. He is a hack. One only has to see his utilization of pop music to accentuate the film as an FM alt_rock radio soundtrack to see what he is really trying to do here is MAKE MONEY. This isn't a film, it's fucking commerce. I hope the damn thing doesn't gross a dime.

Make me laugh occasionally and it doesn't mean anything. Assholes make me laugh all the time.

Note:

Also with Richard Jenkins, Henry Cho, Mark Pelligrino and David L. Lander (AKA "Squiggy").

A scene from the trailer that is not in the movie: Klein, as he is being manhandled by orderlies in an obvious mental hospital, pleads with Graham. She replies, "These men will help you get better," to which Klein replies, "I don't need men to make me get better." It is obvious many more things were cut from the film as well.

Report Card Script: D- Acting: F Cinematography\Lighting: C- Special Effects\Make Up: D Music: F Final Grade: F

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