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More than anything else, Tommy Boy is good evidence of what low expectations can do for viewer’s enjoyment of a movie. The low expectations should come as no surprise. After all, this is one of those Saturday Night Live movies, where actors accustomed to five-minute television skits attempt to pull off more than 90-minutes of big screen comedy. Time and time again, these movies – and there have been an awful lot of them over the years – have failed. The successes have been rare enough for pretty much any demanding viewer to go into the experience with a healthy dose of scepticism.

Chris Farley and David Spade are the television team that tries to make Tommy Boy rise above its mediocre predecessors. For Farley, this was one of four starring roles of a career that was cut short by his death at 33 years of age. And in Tommy Boy, you can see why Farley’s death wasn’t just a loss to his family and friends, but also to the entertainment world. While this is no great work of comedic greatness, Tommy Boy shows Farley’s greatest strengths: boundless energy, boundless enthusiasm for self-deprecating humour and a sweetness that makes his otherwise obnoxious character highly likeable.

Farley plays Tommy Callahan Jr., loser and son of Big Tom (Brian Dennehy), a highly successful car parts manufacturer. Tommy is everyone’s friend, but he’s also a buffoon. Shortly after his return to the plant following the completion of university (it took him seven years, but he did graduate), Tommy finds himself thrust by circumstance into an important role in trying to save the company and the jobs of all his friends. Off on the road with Richard (David Spade), a sarcastic plant employee with encyclopaedic knowledge of the company, Tommy must sell thousands of brake pads in time to make a loan payment.

Although it occasionally veers off into unfunny stupidity, Tommy Boy shows remarkable restraint. The goofy and sometimes rude humour is effective, without being excessive, and I found that I actually cared about Tommy and his fate. There’s plenty of visual humour, and Farley is consistently at its centre. Whether he’s ripping off a car door or making a fool of himself at a sales meeting, this is funny stuff. We almost don’t care that the conniving enemies (played by Bo Derek and Rob Lowe) contribute little to the story. Nor do we mind that there are plenty of Hollywood clichés, including a spunky love interest, a dramatic last minute revelation and a climactic confrontation between good and evil.

Farley is funny. Spade is entertaining in the reasonably small doses that we get of him, and the overall package is a reasonably satisfying comedy. If you’re expecting classic comedy, you likely won’t enjoy Tommy Boy, but if you have Saturday Night Live-level expectations, it will be a pleasant surprise.

Brian Webster

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