Beautiful Joe [DVD] (2005) Billy Connolly; Sharon Stone; Frank C. Turner

This 2000 black comedy from the United Kingdom began as if it were going to be a tearjerker, but with the right touch came off as an inspirational film where two people find each other at difficult moments and eventually happiness. Billy Connolly, the world famous comic from Glasgow, and sexy Sharon Stone comprise the initial odd couple that in the end fulfill each other's needs.

Connolly's plight is far more tragic than Stone's in that he is handed a potential death sentence by his New York City doctor. At the very time that he needs sympathy and understanding he comes home and finds his wife sharing his bed with another man. She tells him bluntly about her intention to seek a divorce because she finds him totally boring. He does not tell her what he has just heard from his doctor.

The scene then shifts to Churchill Downs in Kentucky, where Connolly has gone to gain a needed change of scenery. He is betting on the races and doing it foolishly, without any semblance of strategy. Horseplayer Sharon Stone sees him there. After latching on to him as a potential means of helping her financially, she gives him up when he hands all his track winnings to two nuns, causing her to conclude that he is a loser as she walks him away and leaves him standing in the distance watching her.

Connolly meets Stone again at the strip club where she formerly danced and now supervises. He catches her at a bad time, when an old live in love that now works for the mob is seeking to obtain money she owes. Eventually Connolly takes Stone home. Just as she is again about to end their association she realizes what an effective housekeeper he is when she is at the club and that her two young children like him.

Just as Connolly, Stone, and the two children are making very much like a family a problem ensues and the mob is in hot pursuit. For one thing, the local Kentucky mob boss played by Ian Holm has mistaken Connolly for a famous New York syndicate head, has let him off the hook on the debt, and has angered his superiors. Gil Bellows does a superb job of playing the highly incompetent former love of Stone who invests the role of enforcer with Inspector Clousseau comedic clumsiness. Holm is plenty clumsy himself and the film is one that focuses on comic deficiencies of the mob figures rather than ruthless and violent efficiency.

The Kentucky mob ultimately pursues Connolly and Stone to Las Vegas after she has told her girlfriend where she is going, never dreaming that she will report back to her enemies. Eventually the pair will find happiness after some unique surprise twists involving the mob figures.

Stephen Metcalfe wrote a fine script and directed as well. He deftly spun two character arcs in the film, that of Connolly abandoning his former cautiously boring demeanor as he becomes associated with Stone. At the same time, Stone, while bringing Connolly out, admires his stable qualities and tones down her erratic conduct and savage temper.

I was delightfully surprised to see Sharon Stone and Billy Connolly in a movie together. An unlikely match, you say! But the story and plot were superb! Billy has toned down his humor, but it shines through. Sharon was an excellent love interest for him. He plays his role with tenderness, humor, bravado, and extreme likability. She has a role which is not typical for her, nevertheless a good one. I highly recommend watching this movie.

Before her 2 year hietus due to illness, Sharon Stone stared in this romantic comedy with Billy Connolly, as a single mother called "Hush," whose life is full of messy relations with men and gambling. The film is directed by Stephern Metcalfe, and is the first job as director, who has been working as scriptwriter in Hollywood. But you will be impressed with somebody else.

The film is, in fact, about an amiable Irishaman living in America named Joe, who is effectively played by Billy Connolly, best known for the film "Mrs. Brown" opposite Judi Dench. Joe, seeing that his life as a good-natured flowerist is too boring, decides to travel, and meets Hush. After several misadventures including horse-racing, mud-wrestling, and an encounter with local mobsters (Gil Bellows, TV's "Ally McBeal" and Ian Holm as his boss), Hush comes to like him, so does Joe, among the kids whose life has been so far neglected by Hush.

The best thing you can find about "Beautiful Joe" is Billy Connolly's amicable portrayal of Joe, who fares among the clithed moments better than you expect. We can understand that people around him all like him, as the film depicts. Even Ian Holm's Hannibal-like caricature of gangster looks funny before Connolly's incredibly innocent talk, and there are some good moments in the film, especially when those veteran actors are allowed to do some tricks before us.

But too bad that no one among the crew seems to have pointed out that this kind of film fails to interest us when it looks as if going automatically. I do not see why Joe should fall for Hush, who treats him very bad at first, and keeps on chasing her. The gangster plot is too familiar after our seeing films such as "Life Less Ordinary" or "Get Shorty" and many, many others, and the inclusion of kids is also too clithed. Or, if I may sound too harsh, let me say that at least they should have give them (kids) more decent dialogues.

Sharon Stone seems miscast at first, but actually her acting is not so bad as you may think. It is rather her constant change of hair-styles and costumes that annoys us, making us wonder why these changes are needed. Actually, she was much better in the similar role in "The Mighty" (and duely nominated for Golden Globe), but here her heavy make-ups look as if to show the lack of confidence. They should not have done that.

As a whole, "Beautiful Joe" is a disappinting film because of its lack of originality and confidence. So, why gangsters? The film has one saving grace Billy Connolly which they should have used more effectively.