Stuart Saves His Family is a 1995 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, and based on a series of Saturday Night Live sketches from the early-to-mid 1990s. The movie tracks the adventures of would-be self-help guru Stuart Smalley, a creation of writer/comedian/politician Al Franken, as he attempts to save both his deeply troubled family and his low-rated cable access show. Some of the plot is inspired by Franken's book, I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations By Stuart Smalley.
The film was produced by Lorne Michaels. Co-stars include Laura San Giacomo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Shirley Knight, Lesley Boone and Harris Yulin. Julia Sweeney, Joe Flaherty, Robin Duke, Richard Riehle, Justin Roberts and Kurt Fuller have cameo roles.
Plot
Stuart Smalley has a cable access show about self-help entitled "Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley" which is moved from its noon time slot to 2:45 am by the abusive director of programing of the Chicago Public Access channel, Roz Weinstock because she despises Stuart. But when he goes on the air and personally insults her by name, Roz fires Stuart. He tells his story to his Al Anon sponsor Julia about his troubles and she tells him to try to make amends to Roz. When Roz's secretary, Laurie reports to her that Stuart has arrived, Roz tells her she's 'in a meeting'. While waiting for a long time, Stuart gets restless, but after complementing his show Laurie breaks down in tears. Stuart comforts her as she tells of her boyfriend's gambling problem. When Roz finally decides to meet with Stuart, she further insults Stuart by reading him hate mail to his show, which causes Stuart to get angry and insult Roz back. Back at his home, Stuart is lying in bed while eating Oreos and Fig Newtons, A few sponsors of his many 12 step programs try to get him out of his funk when all of a sudden, Stuart's sister Jodie calls him to tell him to return home to Minneapolis because his beloved Aunt Paula has died.
On the bus ride to Minneapolis, Stuart writes in his journal about the story of his family's history with alcoholism, starting with his 'Big Stinking Drunk' father, and with his grandfather and uncles and Aunt Paula. Stuart has a flashback to when he was a chubby kid, and recalls the happy times with his aunt when she took care of him, Jodie, and his brother Donnie. Stuart also recalls that she lived a full life, because she didn't drink, unlike her brothers who all died from falling off the roof attempting to change the storm windows while drunk. When Stuart arrives at the bus station, he is picked up by his pot smoking, unemployed brother, Donnie, who is picking Stuart up because one of Jodie's ex husbands disabled her car. Back at home he tells his co-dependent mother about his firing from his show and she says she told him it would happen. When he tells about how his journal is going to be the story of his life, his drunken father calls the title "Waste of Space" which he used to call Stuart when he was growing up.
At the viewing of the body of Aunt Paula, Stuart's overeating sister Jodie goes into a Lumbar spasm, and tearfully comments about how nobody cares that Aunt Paula was the best of the family, Dad hated her, Donnie thinks the whole thing is a joke and Mom only cares about her trademark glazed ham. Stuart's cousin Ray shows up whom Dad has hated since he 'accidentally' poisoned the Smalley family dog. Ray asks where they plan to bury Aunt Paula, because he plans to bury his mother in law in the Smalley family plot. Stuart wonders what Ray meant by this because there's supposed to be two plots left in the plot. That night Stuart recalls a time when Dad wasn't as bad as he was most of his life, when the kids in the neighborhood accidentally threw their football into the neighbor's yard, the kid hating neighbor 'Mean Mr. Dimmit' just takes the ball. Once Dad came home, the kids tell him of the incident. Dad then goes over to Mr. Dimmit's and demands the return of the ball, which Dimmit cooperates to. That night, Dad was considered their hero.
The next day, after the funeral, the family drives to the cemetery to bury Aunt Paula, but once they arrive, Cousin Ray was there with two cops and a court order preventing Aunt Paula from burial in the family plot since someone else has occupied one of the two remaining plots and Ray has confirmed his Mother in law as the occupant of the last one. this sparks a fight between the Smalleys when Dad and Donnie decide to drag Aunt Paula's casket out of the hearse. When the cops try to stop them, Dad punches one of the cops in the mouth, and as a result, Dad and Donnie were arrested for the night, but not before Dad demands that the reception be cancelled. The next day they bury Aunt Paula in a Catholic cemetery, despite her being a Presbyterian, throughout the service, Dad glared at Mom because she had the reception, Donnie was upset because he hadn't smoked any pot and had to spend an entire night in a cell with Dad who had anything to drink. Jodie was sick because she ate the whole glazed ham at the reception. Stuart was beginning to realise that this was not about Aunt Paula anymore, but about Dad's alcoholism.
Back in Chicago, Stuart goes straight to bed for 6 days until Laurie comes by his house to tell him she quit her job because she would not work for an abusive boss, and to say that the support group that Stuart recommended for her told her that she was not responsible for her boyfriend's debts. That instantly cheers up Stuart, and lets his sponsors into his home, Laurie brought over a hundred fan letters in favor of his show, giving him confidence in himself again. Julia reminded Stuart that he won't have anything to give back unless he takes care of himself. So every morning, Stuart does a one hour walk-jog, meetings with his 12 step programs, and a reminder of how much he has improved as a person. But one day while writing his journal. Stuart gets a distressing phone call from Jodie telling him that Donnie is suing her over Aunt Paula's will. She explains that Aunt Paula left the family her home worth $60,000(Making Stuart's share $12,000). However the problem is that Aunt Paula made Jodie the executor of the home, and the house cannot be sold until a dispute with the next door neighbor of Aunt Paula.
On the bus ride to Minneapolis, Stuart recalls that his family has always had financial troubles. As a kid, he was always looking for an opportunity to fix those troubles. One particular incident was when there was a contest to name the Ajax Laundry Detergent White Knight, with the grand prize: A convertible with nearly $30,000 in cash, and Stuart easily had the right name, "Sir Cleanalot". When he explains to Mom about his choice for the name, she just puts him down, telling him not to be too disappointed when he doesn't win. On the night of the announcing of the winner, Dad insults Stuart by calling him "Sir Eatalot" and Donnie laughing at him. When it is announced, The prize went to someone else, who named the knight Sir Lancelot. Mom puts Stuart down even further stating that "It's a better name", and the family laughs at Stuart.
At a bar in Minneapolis, Stuart is playing pool with Donnie. He tells Stuart that part of Aunt Paula's house was built onto the property of the neighbor, so in order to sell the house, the Smalleys have to pay a $3,000 easement, which is more than the Smalleys can afford. So Donnie wants Stuart to talk to the neighbor to try to get a more affordable price for the easement. Donnie has a beer with a couple of friends who want Stuart to drink with them. Stuart, knowing the genetic problem of alcoholism in the family, kindly refuses, but Donnie's friends won't take no for an answer. Donnie, however, prevents Stuart from drinking any beer. When Donnie and his friends start getting physical, Stuart trys to give the friends self help advice by asking them if their fathers hit them when they were children and advises them to get in touch with their inner-children saying "Hello, little child. I'm going to protect you, and noone will ever hurt you again". But the friends decide to beat up Stuart, when Donnie steps in and brawls with the friends.
The next day Stuart goes to the home of Aunt Paula's grumpy unfriendly neighbor Orville Egeberg, but the meeting does not go well, and now Egeberg wants $10,000 for the easement, which the rest of the family flips out over. But Donnie insists that by lying and saying that the conversation between Stuart and Egeberg never took place, they might get a chance at a lower price. But the ever honest Stuart objects to it. So Donnie brings out photocopies of Stuarts journal and highlights specific passages regarding negative feelings about his family. With his back against the wall, Stuart decides to pack up and leave Minneapolis back to Chicago, but not before Donnie threatens to sue Stuart.
Back in Chicago, on the 4th of July while watching the fireworks with Julia, Stuart declares independence from his family. Afterwords at a coffeeshop, Julia tells Stuart a story about when she first met her father 2 years ago. Which is why she puts her family business behind her and focuses on herself. On the way back, Stuart complements her about how she's got a great career, while Stuart lost his public access show, which gives Julia an idea. She asks Stuart about the Health Cable Network, which he tried to watch but got sick while watching an eyeball operation, but Julia reminds him that there's also some new-age material and suggests sending them a tape of one of his episodes.
The next day, Stuart heads back to Chicago Public Access to pick up the tape when he meets the timid new secretary, Mea, who tells him that Roz wants to talk to Stuart before he picks up the tape. But Stuart (knowing Roz too well) says she's probably busy, but Mea says that the tape costs $400. Mea asks Roz to go on her lunch break for half an hour but Roz says it's too long and so she goes out for a 20 minute lunch break. Stuart, realizing that he's got nothing to lose at this point, sneaks out with the tape and takes it to Julia who gets a friend to copy the tape right away. With the tape copied, Stuart rushes back to Chicago Public Access with the original copy, where he confesses to Mea that he rushed out with the tape to have it copied, but Roz has heard this and threatens Stuart with a complaint and fires Mea, Stuart retaliates with an insult to Roz.
Back at his apartment, Stuart's attorney tells him that the court would easily throw out Roz's complaint should she file one because the shows are written and produced by Stuart and that the $400 price is considered unfair market value. Julia then tells Stuart that the Health Cable Network loves his tape and have accepted to tape five shows a week for four weeks and start taping a week from Monday, which gives Stuart less time to worry.
On the day of the tapings, Stuart and Julia meet with the director who puts Stuart in front of the camera on the set for a screen test. Stuart's friends and sponsors come down to the studio to brainstorm 20 topics for the shows (actually 19, 20 is "I don't have to have a topic"). One of his sponsers suggested for his first show "Today I will own my panic", but Stuart came up with a better idea by a demonstrating of the benefits of a daily affirmation. He explains that the negative accusations that he isn't good enough, smart enough, and noone likes him are coming from (besides Mom and Dad) his own critical inner voice, and to prove the effects of a daily affirmation he brings in Mea (who has less self asteem than Stuart). First, he gets Mea to relax by taking a deep breath, then has her look into a mirror and state "I am a worthy human being." which at first Mea has trouble saying, but after some encouragement from Stuart she says the statement several times loud and clear until she all of a sudden she shouts "I HATE YOU MOM!!!!". Stuart however is impressed as progress is being made, luckily, Mea's mother is dead, just to be sure she is not watching.
The rest of the shows went great (with the exception of the no topic show as Stuart just stared into the camera for 5 minutes straight). The 19 other shows went well with the Health Cable Network and decided to play the first episode twice. The response to the show was so great that they want to run it 3 times a day, and agree to pay Stuart $750 a week and extra for specials. Before leaving, Stuart is approached by a fan for an autograph, which he signs, and then someone else for what he thinks is another autograph but it turns out that it's a subpoena to appear in court in Minneapolis.
Stuart must now resolve the issue with his aunt's will and save his family.
Reception
Siskel & Ebert each gave the film a "thumbs up" rating, with Siskel calling it "smart and hip" and Ebert saying that "it has more courage than a lot of serious films."[1] The film also received good reviews from The Washington Post, Deseret News, and the Chicago Reader.[2] However, the film scored a 29% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[2]
The film did not fare well at the box office, earning only $911,310. This followed the box-office failures of other SNL-adaptations.
Franken mentioned his depression following the film's failure in his 2003 book, Oh, the Things I Know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness.
Shortly after the movie left the theaters, Saturday Night Live featured a "Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley" sketch that parodied the poor box-office returns.[citation needed] Stuart was depressed and bitter throughout the entire segment and lambasted the audience for choosing other movies (such as Dumb and Dumber) over his.
Although the film flopped at the box office, it is often played for patients attending rehab.[3]
Stuart Saves His Family was released on VHS in January 1996;[4] it was released on DVD on April 17, 2001.[5] In 2007, the film was packaged with two other Lorne Michaels productions, Waynes World and Coneheads, to be sold as a "triple feature".[6]
References
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