For the unshakable Tenors, this is their arrival in dreamland -- they're oblivious to the sleaze -- and it's highlighted by another Capote reference: Andy Williams's swoony warbling of Moon River, from Breakfast at Tiffany's. (Other equally corny songs mixed in are a Dolby-in-selected-theaters version of Moonlight Feels Right, as well as Wild Horses and, as the boys work their grill, Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire.)
The twins' curvy, swerve-on neighbor April (Eva Mendes, charming though she didn't need to lose so much weight for the part) vibes with Walt's conquering attitude, even though she's a few lumens short of a porchlight. And he gets an agent, Morty O'Reilly (Seymour Cassel), who's so out-of-touch that he probably thinks the Happy Days episodes on Nick at Nite are first-run; his eyeglass frames are big enough to carry those shows.
Walt's dynamism leads to a run-in with Cher (as herself), who wants to use him -- that is, them -- to get out of a network TV commitment. In order to sabotage the deal she hires Walt as a co-star to play her partner in a crime-stopper series, which also seems to have been lifted from the same 1970s era that Morty is stuck in.
Walt plays a wise-cracking police scientist and Cher is a tough-talking lawyer, sporting Solid Gold dancer ensembles similar to the outfits she wore in 1987's Suspect, where she really did star as a lawyer. (She earns a good sport award here, to go with her Oscar.)
The Farrellys, working with the writers Charles Wessler and Bennett Yellin, are at their best when they pair the movie's optimism with opportunism. The directors gleefully sink to wielding the producing studio, Fox, as de facto product placement, along with several other back-shelf products that you may have forgotten about.
And there is a last cameo that returns a performer who also has forgotten roots -- in musical theater -- to the stage for the big finale. The one thing that connects all of the Farrellys' movies is inclusion, and eventually -- some might cringe and say inevitably -- Stuck on You does so as well. The story of the Tenors finally alights on a passage that could be from The Wizard of Oz -- there's no place like home.
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