Slapstick ‘Impostors’ Takes Its Pratfalls a Bit Hard

To fully enjoy “The Impostors,” writer-director-star Stanley Tucci’s homage to early slapstick movie farce, one has to be in a particularly open, perhaps even unhinged, mood. You can’t simply appreciate its encomiums to the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy; you have to accept those teams as if they had been collectively reincarnated in the persons of Tucci and his co-star, Oliver Platt.

As Maurice and Arthur, a pair of would-be Depression-era actors who end up as stowaways on a Europe-bound cruise ship (think: “Monkey Business”), Platt and Tucci bear an easy physical resemblance to Laurel & Hardy. And in each of them are traits of both Laurel & Hardy, as well as of Curly, Larry and Moe, and Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, and a few others we may have missed. Tucci is nothing if not ambitious, and courageous.

It takes guts to open a comedy with scenes that remind you of “Ishtar,” an earlier failed attempt at slapstick homage. Coming off his (and Campbell Scott’s) critically celebrated “Big Night,” a hefty first film about immigrant Italian restaurant brothers reaching for the elusive American dream in 1950s New Jersey, Tucci has not only spun off in another direction, but in one that would test the most seasoned comedy director.

Look what happened to Blake Edwards, the modern master of movie slapstick, when he made a run at doing Laurel & Hardy in a movie so aptly titled “A Fine Mess.” “The Impostors,” at least, isn’t a total mess. Tucci and Platt both reveal strong deadpan comedy sensibilities, and on occasion the inventiveness of their bits rises above imitation. But too often, we watch them doing deliberate pratfalls, or telegraphing punch lines. They’re working hard to fill the time, and there’s no story, suspense, or so much as a romantic interest to give it ballast.

In its opening moments, we go through a series of sketches showing us that Maurice and Arthur are bona fide losers. Practicing their art by faking fights and death scenes in public places, they can’t even remember who’s dying on which day. When they do get a break, they can’t get a break. During an audition for which they’ve been guaranteed roles, the wife of the director (an unbilled Woody Allen) calls to say she’s leaving him for another man, and taking the play’s funding with her.

After later being chased out of a bar by a drunken, mean-spirited stage actor (Alfred Molina), the boys spend the night in a dockside crate, only to awaken aboard a cruise liner whose passenger list happens to include that same ferocious actor.

It includes a further variety of thieves, murderers and mysterious royalty, and while Maurice and Arthur hide behind their own guises, they begin to peel away the veils of a shipload of impostors. Most of these secondary characters are even less interesting than our frightened heroes. There are exceptions in Campbell Scott’s mime of a sadistic German ship’s officer, and Steve Buscemi’s hangdog portrayal of a jilted crooner.

Otherwise, this ship of fools doesn’t sail.

* MPAA rating: R, for some language. Times guideline: The rating is a little misleading for so innocuous a comedy.

‘The Impostors’

Stanley Tucci: Arthur

Oliver Platt: Maurice

Alfred Molina: Jeremy

Steve Buscemi: Happy Franks

Campbell Scott: Meistrich

A First Cold Press Production, released by Fox Searchlight. Writer-director Stanley Tucci. Producers Beth Alexander, Tucci. Editor Suzy Elmiger. Cinematography Ken Kelsch. Production design Andrew Jackness. Music Gary DeMichele. Costumes Juliet Polcsa. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

* AMC Century 14, Century City Shopping Center, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., (310) 553-8900; Sunset 5, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (323) 848-3500; NuWilshire, 1314 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 394-8099; Edwards Town Center, 3199 Park Center Drive, Costa Mesa, (714) 751-4184.