CHUCK & LARRY - Visual Hollywood

Everything you need
to know about
I NOW
PRONOUNCE YOU
CHUCK &
LARRY
A call for equality
and respect
This presentation by
David Bruce
visualhollywood.com

SSYNOPSIS
Movies Contain the
Essence of Being Human
Two best friends Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and
Larry Valentine (Kevin James) pretend to be a gay
couple to receive domestic partner benefits.

CAST
The Cinematic Arts Have the
Power to Transform
Adam Sandler as Chuck Levine
Kevin James as Larry Valentine
Jessica Biel as Alex McDonough
Steve Buscemi as Clinton Fitzer
Dan Aykroyd as Captain P. Tucker
Nick Turturro as Tony
Richard Chamberlain as Councilman Banks
Ving Rhames as Duncan

CREW
Our Artists Are
Our Liberators
Directed by DENNIS DUGAN
Screenplay by BARRY FANARO ,
ALEXANDER PAYNE, JIM TAYLOR
Produced by TOM SHADYAC
Director of Photography
DEAN SEMLER, ACS, ASC
Film Editor JEFF GOURSON
Music by
RUPERT GREGSON-WILLIAMS

CAST
ADAM SANDLER
(Chuck Levine, Produced by)
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in
Manchester, New Hampshire, Sandler's first
brush with comedy came at age 17, with a
performance at a Boston comedy club. From
then on he was hooked, performing regularly
in comedy clubs throughout the state, while
earning a degree in fine arts from New York
University.
Sandler made his motion picture debut in
Coneheads, opposite Dan Aykroyd and Jane
Curtin. He has gone on to become an almost
self-contained mini-studio, involved in all
aspects of film production. Happy Gilmore
was one of the most successful movies of
1996.
Actors are
Liberators Unaware

CAST
Actors help us: laugh, be happy, cry,
get angry, and even think.
JESSICA BIEL
(Alex McDonough)
In her free time, Biel is active
with the Make the Difference
Network, a nonprofit
organization she started with
her father. MTDN is a "national
wish list" where people can
search, find and fund specific
wishes and needs that have
been listed by nonprofit
organizations. Through MTDN,
Biel has become involved in
such charities as Serving
Those Who Serve, Best
Friends Animal Sanctuary and
PETA. Her hobbies include
ballet, soccer, running, yoga
and hiking with her dogs, Tina
and Tevy.

DIRECTOR
Filmmakers are Revolutionaries,
Not Just Entertainers
DENNIS DUGAN
Dugan has made a career as a
television and film director, and
appears in cameo parts in many of his
films. Films directed by Dennis Dugan
include the 1990 John Ritter comedy
Problem Child (with Dugan appearing
as an All-American dad), the 2001
comedy Saving Silverman starring Jack
Black, Steve Zahn, Amanda Peet and
Dugan as a referee, the 2003 Martin
Lawrence/Steve Zahn comedy National
Security, and the 1996 and 1999 Adam
Sandler comedies Happy Gilmore (in
which Dugan plays Doug Thompson,
the golf tour supervisor) and Big Daddy
(with Dugan as a man who reluctantly
gives candy to a trick-or-treating
Julian). Dugan has directed episodes of
such television series as Moonlighting,
Ally McBeal, and NYPD Blue.

TRIVIA AND NEWS
Movie Making is the Convergence
of Many Talents and Art Forms
The film was screened prior to release
for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against
Defamation (GLAAD). GLAAD
representative Damon Romine told
Entertainment Weekly magazine:
"The movie has some of the expected
stereotypes, but in its own disarming
way, it's a call for equality and
respect.”
The movie bears similarities with the
Australian movie Strange Bedfellows
which stars Paul Hogan about two
middle-aged volunteer firemen who
register as a gay couple for federal
benefits, then suddenly have to prove
their relationship to an Australian
Taxation Office investigator.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Stories are
Transforming
The pride of their Brooklyn fire station, Chuck Levine
(Sandler) and Larry Valentine (James) are two guys'
guys-always side-by-side and willing to do anything for
each other. Salt-of-the-earth widower Larry wants just
one thing: to protect his family.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
His buddy Chuck also wants one thing: to
enjoy the single life. Grateful Chuck owes
Larry for saving his life on the job, and Larry
calls in that favor big time when civic red
tape prevents him from naming his own two
kids as his life insurance beneficiaries. All
that Chuck has to do is claim to be Larry's
domestic partner on some city forms. Easy.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Stories Embody the
Essence of Being Human
Nobody will ever know. But when an overzealous, spotchecking
bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new
couple's arrangement becomes a citywide issue and
goes from confidential to front-page news.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Cinematic Story Telling is a
Profoundly Humanizing endeavor.
Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds, Chuck and
Larry must now fumble through a hilarious charade of
domestic bliss under one roof. And after surviving their
mandatory honeymoon and dodging the threat of exposure,
the well-intentioned con men discover that sticking
together in your time of need is what truly makes a family.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS
Film making is a
Community Event.
JESSICA BIEL (Blade: Trinity, The Illusionist) also stars
in the film as Alex McDonough, the attorney who both
assists Chuck and Larry with their precarious situation
and proves irresistible to Chuck.

CRITICAL OPINION
Lame sit-com that will deter no
one who loves Adam Sandler.
--Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood
Reporter
Tremendously savvy in its
stupid way
--Nathan Lee, Village Voice
The film is embarrassing at best,
--Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve
Their vulgar self-congratulation
compromises their goodwill.
--Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Free Artistic Expression is
a Mark of a Free Society

FILM REVIEW
By David Bruce
So what is the bottom line in this
comedy about gay marriage between to
straight men?
A GLAAD representative Damon Romine
said:
"The movie has some of the expected
stereotypes, but in its own disarming
way, it's a call for equality and respect.”
Similarly Nathan Lee of the Village Voice
comments that it “exploits gay
stereotypes even as it mounts (from
behind) an ingenious dismantling of
homophobia.”
Art is the Language
of Liberation
In the midst of lack luster reviews,
perhaps the greatest contribution this
film can make is in its challenge to
respect those who are different from us,
---regardless of who that might be.

DEALING WITH HOMOPHOBIA
“Evil is the shadow of angel. Just as there are
angels of light, support, guidance, healing and
defense, so we have experiences of shadow angels.
And we have names for them: racism, sexism,
homophobia are all demons - but they're not out
there.”
--Matthew Fox, Episcopal priest and author
“Homophobia is like racism and anti-
Semitism and other forms of bigotry in
that it seeks to dehumanize a large group
of people, to deny their humanity, their
dignity and personhood.”
--Coretta Scott King
Society is only as free as its arts.
Art is the voice of human freedom.

RESPECTING
DIFFERENCES
Art is a
Liberating Force
The costumes illustrate a point: In the end we are all
separate: our stories, no matter how similar, come to a
fork and diverge. We are drawn to each other because
of our similarities, but it is our differences we must
learn to respect.

WE ALL HAVE
UNIQUE LIFE STORIES
To Restrict Creativity is to Restrict
the very Nature of the Creator
The multicultural
minister at the
wedding chapel seems
to have mixed, but fun,
background story. It
should reminds us:
“Their story, yours and
mine - it's what we all
carry with us on this
trip we take, and we
owe it to each other to
respect our stories and
learn from them”

visual review by
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