Funny Farm (film)

Funny Farm
Promotional poster for Funny Farm
Directed by	George Roy Hill
Written by	Jay Cronley (book, Funny Farm) Jeffrey Boam (screenplay)
Produced by	Robert L. Crawford
Starring	Chevy Chase Madolyn Smith Joseph Maher Jack Gilpin Brad Sullivan MacIntyre Dixon
Cinematography	Miroslav Ondrícek
Edited by	Alan Heim
Music by	Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	June 3, 1988 (1988-06-03)
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$19 million
Box office	$25,537,221

Funny Farm is a 1988 American film starring Chevy Chase and Madolyn Smith. The film was adapted from a 1985 comedic novel of the same name by Jay Cronley. The movie was filmed on location in Vermont, mostly in Townshend, Vermont. It was the final film directed by George Roy Hill.

Plot

Andy Farmer (Chase) is a New York City sports writer who moves with his wife, Elizabeth (Smith) to the seemingly charming town of Redbud, Vermont, so he can write a novel. They do not get along well with the residents, and other quirks arise such as being given exorbitant funeral bills for a long-dead man buried on their land years before they acquired the house. Marital troubles soon arise from the quirkiness of Redbud as well as the fact that Elizabeth was critical of Andy's manuscript, while secretly getting her ideas for children's books published. They soon decide to divorce and sell their home. To expedite the sale, the Farmers offer the town's residents a $15,000 donation to Redbud, and $50 cash each if they help make a good impression on their prospective home buyers. To that end, the citizens remake Redbud into a perfect Norman Rockwell-style town. Their charade dazzles a pair of prospective buyers, who make the Farmers an offer on the house; however, Andy declines to sell, realizing that he genuinely enjoys small-town living. He and Elizabeth decide to stay together in Redbud, much to the chagrin of the locals, who are now angry that they lost their promised money. Though the mayor does not hold the Farmers liable for the $15,000, as the sale of their house did not occur, Andy decides to pay everyone in Redbud their $50, which helps improve his standing among the townspeople. The film ends with Andy taking a job as a sports writer for the Redbud newspaper, and Elizabeth, now pregnant with their first child, has written multiple children's stories.

Cast

• Chevy Chase as Andy Farmer
• Madolyn Smith as Elizabeth Farmer
• Kevin O'Morrison as Sheriff Ledbetter
• Mike Starr and Glenn Plummer as Crocker and Mickey, the movers
• Kevin Conway as Crumb Petree, the mailman (uncredited)
• Joseph Maher as Michael Sinclair, the publisher
• Bill Fagerbakke and Nicholas Wyman as Lon and Dirk, the Criterion brothers
• William Newman as Gus Lotterhand
• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Elizabeth's Student (scenes deleted)

Production

The film was mostly shot in Southeastern Vermont, including the towns of Townshend, Windsor, Grafton, and Hartland, Vermont using locals as extras. The Townshend Common today has an unusual souvenir from the production of Funny Farm: to make the trees on the Common look as if it was mid autumn, the film crew dyed the leaves, which killed all of the trees, except for one in the middle of the Common. Today, the ring of newly planted trees around the edge of the Common are significantly shorter than the much larger one that survived the filming of Funny Farm.

Reception

Funny Farm has received mixed to positive reviews at the time of its release. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 67%, based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. However, film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were strong champions of the film, praising it on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Ebert described the film as a "small miracle.", while Siskel called it "the best film Chase has made" and compared it to the films of Preston Sturges.

External links

• Funny Farm at IMDb
• Funny Farm at Box Office Mojo
• Funny Farm at Rotten Tomatoes