''Say It Isn't So'' is a 2001 American
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...
film directed by
J. B. Rogers
James B. Rogers is a film director and producer. Rogers was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended Park Tudor School.
Rogers acted as second unit director for '' American Pie'' and went later on to direct ''American Pie 2'' as main dir ...
, written by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow, and starring
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy '' License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaime ...
and
Chris Klein as two young lovers who come to believe that they are actually siblings.
The film was both a critical and commercial failure, grossing a little over $12 million on a $25 million budget.
Plot
Gilly Noble takes a stray cat named "
Ringo" to the animal shelter where he works in
Shelbyville, Indiana
Shelbyville is a city in Addison Township, Shelby County, in the U.S. state of Indiana and is the county seat. The population was 20,067 as of the 2020 census.
History
In 1818, the land that would become Shelbyville was ceded to the Un ...
. Gilly gets his hair cut by a beautiful young aspiring hairdresser named Jo Wingfield. As Jo cuts Gilly's hair, she mentions that she recently lost a tail-less cat named Ringo, leading Gilly to tell her that Ringo is at the pound. The excitement causes Jo to accidentally cut off a part of Gilly's ear, and he is rushed to the hospital where the ear is reattached. To make up for the incident, Jo invites Gilly to her house for lunch the next day, where Gilly meets Jo's greedy, self-centered mother, Valdine, and invalid father, Walter.
Gilly and Jo date for six months before getting engaged, but suddenly a private detective, Vic Vetter, contacts Gilly to tell him that he's Valdine and Walter's son. After Gilly and Jo end their incestuous relationship, Gilly moves in with his new family, and Jo moves to
Beaver, Oregon to start a new life. After being branded a "sister-fucker", Gilly loses his job at the animal shelter and is forced to take a job removing roadkill for the highway department.
Sixteen months later, a surprise comes to the Wingfield doorstep in the form of a young man named Leon Pitofsky, who claims to be Valdine and Walter's son and presents his birth certificate as proof. Valdine and Walter feel better for a few moments before angrily lashing out at Gilly and forcing him to leave. Valdine notifies the Beaver police that Gilly is a sex offender. Gilly runs for his life and decides to go to Oregon to inform Jo. On the way to Oregon, he befriends a pilot
with two prosthetic legs named Dig.
Meanwhile, Jo becomes engaged to her ex-boyfriend Jack Mitchelson, a rich and powerful young man who secretly deals in
marijuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
, controls over half the town by paying off numerous politicians, and cheats on Jo with his ex-girlfriend, a local cop named Gina. Valdine keeps pushing Jo to marry Jack in order to become involved with Jack's wealth, although Jo still loves Gilly. Valdine keeps Leon secluded and tells Jo that Leon is a figment of Gilly's imagination. Gilly tries to hide from the authorities, and Dig frequently aids him in his escape from Jack's henchmen.
Ultimately, Gilly is not able to stop Jo from marrying Jack, who still believes that Gilly is her brother. Police arrive at the marriage scene to inform the family that Gilly died in a car accident, which was actually an act of sabotage by Leon who has been arrested. Jo learns the truth and ends her marriage which causes Valdine to attack Leon and have a stroke. It's also revealed that Jack was behind Valdine and Walter being misidentified as Gilly's parents. But unknown to everyone, Gilly was not driving the car at the time of the accident when it was actually one of Jack's henchmen Streak. Gilly, who has just returned to working at the animal shelter, sees Jo and mistakenly believes that she wants to commit suicide. They are finally reunited on the roof of the same animal shelter that was a catalyst for their coming together.
A few months later, Gilly and Jo are married, and Walter, Valdine, Leon, Dig, and many other people attend, with Walter on his feet and Valdine in a wheelchair after her stroke. Also, as a surprise wedding present, Vetter arrives and tells him that he has truly found his mother. In an ironic twist, Gilly's mother turns out to be
Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Marie Somers (née Mahoney; born October 16, 1946) is an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She appeared in the television role of Chrissy Snow on ''Three's Company'' and as Carol Foster Lambert on ...
, whom Gilly used to fantasize about while masturbating.
Cast
*
Heather Graham
Heather Joan Graham (born January 29, 1970) is an American actress. After appearing in television commercials, her first starring role in a feature film came with the teen comedy '' License to Drive'' (1988), followed by the critically acclaime ...
as Josephine "Jo" Wingfield
*
Chris Klein as Gilbert "Gilly" Noble
*
Orlando Jones
Orlando Jones (born April 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for being one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series ''MADtv'', for his role as the 7 Up spokesman from 1999 to 2002, and for his role a ...
as Dig McCaffrey
*
Sally Field
Sally Margaret Field (born November 6, 1946) is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film F ...
as Valdine Wingfield
*
Richard Jenkins
Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor who is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series '' Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Tr ...
as Walter Wingfield
*
John Rothman
John Mahr Rothman (born June 3, 1949) is an American film, television, and stage actor.
Life and career
Rothman was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Elizabeth D. (née Davidson) and Donald N. Rothman, a lawyer. He is the brother of film ...
as Larry Falwell
*
Jack Plotnick
Jack Stuart Plotnick (born October 30, 1968) is an American film and television actor, writer, and producer.
Career
Plotnick is possibly best known for his role as Edmund Kay in the 1998 period drama '' Gods and Monsters'', which won an Ac ...
as Leon Pitofsky
*
Eddie Cibrian
Edward Carl Cibrian ( ; born June 16, 1973) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Cole Deschanel on the television series '' Sunset Beach'' and Jimmy Doherty on ''Third Watch''.
His other notable television roles include Mat ...
as Jack Mitchelson
*
Mark Pellegrino
Mark Ross Pellegrino (born April 9, 1965) is an American actor of film and television. He is best known for his work as Lucifer in ''Supernatural'', Paul Bennett in '' Dexter'', Jacob in ''Lost'', James Bishop in '' Being Human'', Clayton Haas ...
as Jimmy Mitchelson
*
Henry Cho
Henry Cho (born December 30, 1962) is an American stand-up comedian. His work can be heard nationwide several times weekly on SiriusXM Radio's Channel 98, Laugh USA, Sirius Radio's Jeff and Larry's Comedy Roundup Channel 97, and Pandora Radio's ...
as Freddy
* Brent Hinkley as Streak
*
Richard Riehle
Richard Riehle (born May 12, 1948) is an American character actor. He portrayed Walt Finnerty on ''Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005) and The Warden on ''The Young and the Restless'' (2007). He also appeared in over 200 films, including '' Glory'' ...
as Sheriff Merle Hobbs
*
Brent Briscoe
Brent Briscoe (May 21, 1961 – October 18, 2017) was an American character actor and screenwriter.
Early life
Briscoe was born in Moberly, Missouri. After completing his education at the University of Missouri, Briscoe launched his career as a ...
as Detective Vic Vetter
*
Ezra Buzzington
Ezra Buzzington is an American character actor in film and television. A figure in underground cinema, Buzzington is also the founder of the Seattle Fringe Festival and co-founder of the New York International Fringe Festival.
Career
With ov ...
as Stewart
*
Julie White
Julie K. White (born June 4, 1961) is an American actress. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in ''The Little Dog Laughed'' in 2007. She has also received three other Tony Award nominations for her performanc ...
as Ruthie Falwell
*
Courtney Peldon
Courtney Peldon (born April 13, 1981) is an American television and film actress.
Early life and education
Peldon was born in New York City, New York. Her younger sister Ashley is also an actress. Both she and Ashley became involved in the ent ...
as Cher Falwell
* Matthew Peters as Buddy Falwell
*
Lin Shaye
Linda Shaye (born October 12, 1943) is an American film, television, and theater actress. In a career spanning over forty years, she has appeared in more than a hundred feature films. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Elise Rain ...
as Nurse Bautista
*
C. Ernst Harth as Mr. Campisi
*
Sarah Silverman
Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, actress, and writer.
Silverman was a writer and performer on ''Saturday Night Live'', and she starred in and produced ''The Sarah Silverman Program'', which ran from 2007 to ...
as Officer Gina
*
Suzanne Somers
Suzanne Marie Somers (née Mahoney; born October 16, 1946) is an American actress, author, singer, businesswoman, and health spokesperson. She appeared in the television role of Chrissy Snow on ''Three's Company'' and as Carol Foster Lambert on ...
(''uncredited'') as Suzanne
Release
''Say It Isn't So'' opened in the United States on March 23, 2001 in 1,974 venues. It ranked number 10 at the North American box office, earning $2,861,903 in its opening weekend. At the end of its run, the film grossed $5,520,393 in the United States and $6,800,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $12,320,393.
Reception
The film received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it has a approval rating based on reviews, with an average score of . The website's consensus states: "Those that haven't tired of Farrelly brothers' brand of comedy may still find some laughs here. Otherwise, the slow pacing and unimaginative shock gags will start to wear on the viewer." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a 21 out of 100 rating based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
In his review for the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'',
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film one out of four stars and stated: "A comedy character can't be successfully embarrassed for more than a few seconds at a time. Even then, it's best if they don't know what they've done wrong--if the joke's on them, and they don't get it.
.."Say It Isn't So," on the other hand, keeps a character embarrassed in scene after scene, until he becomes an...embarrassment. The movie doesn't understand that embarrassment comes in a sudden painful flush of realization; drag it out, and it's not embarrassment anymore, but public humiliation, which is a different condition, and not funny." Writing for ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'',
Desson Howe
Desson Patrick Thomson is a former speechwriter for the Obama administration and former film critic for ''The Washington Post''. He was known as Desson Howe until 2003 when he changed his name after reuniting with his birth father.
Biography
...
noted that "When the Farrelly Brothers made "Dumb and Dumber," "
There's Something About Mary
''There's Something About Mary'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly. It stars Cameron Diaz as the title character with Ben Stiller, Matt Dillon, Lee Evans, and Chris Elliott all playing men w ...
" and "
Me, Myself & Irene
''Me, Myself & Irene'' is a 2000 American slapstick black comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, and starring Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. Chris Cooper, Robert Forster, Richard Jenkins, Daniel Greene, Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon an ...
," the message was: Comedy doesn't get lower than this. They were wrong.
..This time, the jokes about dead animals, gunk in the hair, incest and all other taboos are flatter than the road kill Gilly finds himself picking up for a living." Marc Savlov of ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' gave the movie one out of five stars, criticizing Rogers for using the "skeletal framework" of a Farrelly Brothers film that's bereft of their "good-natured" moments and humor that didn't "go not far enough and, ironically, way too far", concluding that: "In the end it's a dull, unremarkable comedy of errata; it makes you realize just how smart the creators of ''Dumb & Dumber'' actually are." ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
''s
Peter Travers
Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
felt the script was "minus a shred of Farrelly wit." ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
''s
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
gave the film an overall "F" grade. He called it "a black comedy in the form of vicarious serial punishment", criticizing the use of "synthetic mock cruelties" that lack pacing and creativity when delivered as jokes, highlighting the main incest gag as failing to register due to the two main leads' performances.
Home media
''Say It Isn't So'' was released on
VHS and
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
on August 21, 2001. The DVD features an
audio commentary
An audio commentary is an additional audio track, usually digital, consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with a video. Commentaries can be serious or entertaining in nature, and can add informatio ...
by director Rogers and star Klein, and six
deleted and extended scenes including an extended ending.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Say It Isn't So
2001 films
2001 black comedy films
2001 directorial debut films
2001 romantic comedy films
2000s coming-of-age comedy films
20th Century Fox films
American black comedy films
American coming-of-age comedy films
American romantic comedy films
Incest in film
Films directed by J. B. Rogers
Films scored by Mason Daring
Films set in Indiana
Films set in Oregon
Films shot in California
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films shot in Utah
Films shot in Vancouver
2000s English-language films
2000s American films