Wizard-8
"Splitting Heirs" should have worked. It was written by Eric Idle of "Monty Python", and its cast is filled with talented actors who have shown a funny bone elsewhere. It also for the most part has an amiable air around itself that gives it some charm. But in the end, there are simply not enough laughs in it to make it succeed. To tell the truth, I am not sure why the movie isn't all that amusing. It may have been that it takes almost half of the movie to set things up. It may have been that when Idle's character starts his attempts to try and kill Moranis' character, the movie kind of sours, since Moranis' character is a decent and kind person instead of a total lout. It may have been that several times there are some blatantly incomprehensible moments that suggest the movie's editor tried to save the movie in the editing room, but failed. But maybe it's that the majority of the gags in the movie could just be not funny at all, mostly coming across as feeble and uninspired. Oddly, the movie isn't painful to sit through, so it definitely isn't one of the worst comedies ever made. But all the same, it's just not that hilarious.
James Hitchcock
Let's get the bad news out of the way first. Eric Idle (born 1943) is a generation too old to play a young man born around 1967. Although Idle looks relatively youthful for a fifty-year-old, there is no way he could be the son of Barbara Hershey (born 1948). Even Rick Moranis (born 1953) is rather too old for his role.Bad news over. The good news is that, miscasting apart, "Splitting Heirs" is excellent, one of the best of the "post-Python" comedies produced by the various Pythons after their last effort as a team, "The Meaning of Life". Idle not only played the leading character, Tommy Patel, but also wrote the script. He also wrote the theme song, "Someone Stole My Baby", a witty pastiche of sixties pop which puns on the differences between song lyrics and the spoken language. In the dialect of English used by pop lyricists it is taken for granted that "baby" means "girlfriend" (or "boyfriend" if the singer is female), although it very rarely has this meaning in the dialect spoken by everyone else. So the words "someone stole my baby" in a song would normally mean "another man has seduced my girl", but here Idle gives them their absolutely literal meaning of "someone has kidnapped my young child". Which is exactly what happens in the film.In the 1960s the infant heir to the Dukedom of Bournemouth was accidentally left in a restaurant by his absent-minded hippie parents and, apparently, found a few days later in a London telephone kiosk. Tommy (the adopted son of a British-Asian family) begins to suspect that he is the long-lost heir and that the current Duke, Henry, may in fact be a changeling. He consults a crooked lawyer named Raoul P. Shadgrind who advises him that he has little chance of establishing a claim to the title while the Duke is still alive. If, however, the Duke were to die things might be easier, so Tommy sets out to kill Henry (even though the two are supposedly friends). A further complication is that Tommy and Henry are in love with the same girl, Kitty.Several of the post-Python films were influenced by the famous Ealing comedies, and "Splitting Heirs" is clearly a modern version of "Kind Hearts and Coronets". In the Ealing film Dennis Price plays the poor relation of an aristocratic family who plots to inherit the title by murdering eight other heirs who stand ahead of him in the line of succession. (A similar plot line was used in an episode of the early seventies television series "The Persuaders"). Tommy only has one person standing between him and the title, but unlike Price's character he proves a singularly inept assassin, and several attempts on Henry's life misfire without Henry even being aware that someone is trying to kill him.Had this film been made in 1973 rather than 1993 Eric Idle would have been the ideal choice as Tommy. His fellow-Python John Cleese gives an excellent supporting performance as the shyster lawyer Shadgrind, a man who proves even keener on murder than his client, who eventually sees the error of his ways. There is a clear Pythonic reference when Cleese says to Idle "Say no more!", a line famously used by Idle himself (to Terry Jones) in the "Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink" sketch.Henry was educated in America, and Moranis plays him as the stereotypical American as seen by the British- loud, brash, hyper-active and unconventional, zooming round his ancestral stately home on roller-skates. In 1993, following the popularity of "The Darling Buds of May", the lovely Catherine Zeta Jones was well known in Britain but had not yet become a major international star. Here, however, as Kitty, the love-interest of both Tommy and Henry, she shows her gift for comedy that was later to stand her in good stead in Hollywood films like "Intolerable Cruelty" and "Chicago".Hershey plays the Dowager Duchess, a former model, as a glamorous, sex-mad seductress. Her real name is Lucinda, but she modelled under the name "Available Space". I wonder if Idle was having some fun at Hershey's own expense; in her youth she was regarded as something of a Hollywood wild child, and acted for a time under the name "Barbara Seagull". She also christened her son, in good hippie fashion, "Free"; Tommy's full name is Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace. There is a running joke about Lucinda's persistent but unsuccessful attempts to seduce Tommy, not knowing he is in fact her son.Black comedy can be a difficult subject to get right. Done well, it can be tasteless but hilarious; done badly, it is merely tasteless. The Pythons, however, were all very skilled comics, and Idle manages to hit the right balance between bad taste and hilarity. There are some great lines such as "I'm bi-sexual. Whenever I want to have sex, I have to buy it", or "Sex before the wedding is so much better without the groom". This is one of the most side-splitting British comedies of the nineties. 8/10
blinkprincess17
This movie starring former Pythons Idle and Cleese, as well as Rick Moranis and Catherine Zeta-Jones is an interesting little comedy about a baby English duke (Idle) who disappeared at birth and lost his inheritance to an American (Moranis). He doesn't learn about the mistake until he's 35, living with his adoptive Pakistani family, and working as a stockbroker for a large firm. Zeta-Jones is Moranis' pretty, golddigging fiance and Barbara Hershey plays the hysterical, widowed nymphomaniac "Duchess Mummy". John Cleese is a mad lawyer and it's clearly not his best work, but fans will like to see his face. Idle is not at his greatest either, but the plot is kinda neat and moves fairly quickly. This was before Zeta-Jones became the "Chicago" superstar she is today, but everyone will note her talent and latina-like beauty. I remember Rick Moranis best as the fabulous "Dark Helmet" in "Space Balls", but I enjoyed him as the nerdy, rollerblading, 10-year-old in a man's body in this one. You may be disappointed at seeing the comedy gods Idle and Cleese fall kind of flat, but give it at least a peek, for there are some quality scenes.
sweek2003
This film cracks me up, especially John Cleese's character, the sight of Cleese rolling down a hill atop of an upside down Renault which moves thanks to the bikes holding up the entire car, will stay with me forever. I'm giggling to myslef as I write this review. Admittedly it's not for everyone. For example, a lot of Americans prefer bold, in-your-face comedy to Brit wit.Also, this is probably Eric Idles second best film outside of Monty Python (1st being Nuns On The Run).
