The Man With Two Brains (1983)
Retro Review #61: Only one of which is where it belongs, in this film that also goes a bit off track.
The Man With Two Brains (1983)
+ Feature film, 1h 30m🎖️
A-^
Grade: A-^ (8.0) / HOF: 15
EQ 👍A | 📖A 👥A+ 📽️A 🎼A
DW 🕶️8.4 | 🌚11 🌝8
POPCAP 💯n/a 🍿n/a 🧢n/a
L-R 💻⬇️1️⃣ 👀⬇️1️⃣ 🛐⬇️3️⃣
When it comes to the 1983 film The Man With Two Brains, I’m a man of two brains minds.
On the one brain mind hand, I really want to love it and recommend it to everyone. It’s a favorite of mine, despite itself. After Planes, Trains and Automobiles, it’s arguably Steve Martin’s next-funniest movie and has Dark Whimsy written all over it.
On the other brain mind hand, it could have been so much better. But before I get into that, let me tell you a little bit more about the movie and what it gets right.
The Man With Two Brains is a spoof of old 1950s-style mad scientist movies, complete with brains in jars and minds in the wrong bodies. Directed by Carl Reiner, who shares writing credits with Martin and George Gipe, the movie delivers plenty of funny lines and sight gags, while Martin’s acting in the film brings lots of his trademark physical comedy.
Martin plays Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr, a widower and brilliant brain surgeon, longing to find a new lifelong love.
Instead, he meets Dolores Benedict, well-played by Kathleen Turner. She’s a gold digger who seduces and marries wealthy men, then delights in cheating on them and mentally torturing them for a while, before she offs them for their money.
I won’t go further into the story, as this is a no-spoilers zone, but I’m sure you can see the potential for humorous conflict here!
Trivia note: Sissy Spacek is very good as the uncredited voice of Anne Uumellmahaye, a character whom I won’t say more about, because, no spoilers.
Now the next portion of this review is about my coined genre, Dark Whimsy, what it is, and why I like it so much. I really need to put this in an essay of its own, but I haven’t yet, and this is a great film to use to illustrate some of my thoughts about Dark Whimsy.
Dark Whimsy is a blending of dark fears like death and horror with childish impulses like laughter and fantasy. It’s popular in fiction for children, because it helps to make the worst realities of life less scary. In other words, Dark Whimsy can help prepare kids for growing up.
Dark Whimsy is less popular with adults. Some people don’t want to face anything unpleasant ever, even when it is lightened with Whimsy. Other people don’t care for the Whimsy, considering it too childish for a mature adult to enjoy.
I disagree. At its core, Dark Whimsy is about Darkness vs. Light, Bad Things vs. Good Things, Evil vs. Innocence, Despair vs. Joy. I believe Dark Whimsy in storytelling can not only be highly entertaining, but also a force for good in the world, and is highly consistent with my Christian worldview.
You can read about how I measure Dark Whimsy here. But let’s look at The Man With Two Brains as an example.
On the Dark Scale, this film has plenty of mayhem and death, up to even several murders. We have monsters, not just Dolores, but also a mad scientist, Dr. Alfred Necessiter, played by David Warner. We even have plenty of scenes with a Dark mood, many in a creepy dungeon-style environment.
On the Whimsy Scale, we start with all the humor, much of which is delightfully childish. So while we have much mirth, we’re mostly missing the munchkins, excepting for a very funny scene near the start of the film involving a little girl. We do make up for that with some magic, including mysterious telepathy and magical moments of music and romance. And that dungeon-style setting brings not only a Dark mood, but also a Whimsical one.
So where does The Man With Two Brains go wrong?
It could have been a Dark Whimsy masterpiece. I designate works that score very high on both the Dark and Whimsy Scales as Pure Dark Whimsy, and this film could have received that designation, had it been done right.
But adult creators sometimes blend in adults-only topics into their works. This decreases Whimsy by reducing its childlike innocence. (Ironically, it’s kind of immature to do this, as it is usually brought to us by male creators who are still behaving like young boys losing their innocence and giggling at obscene language and dirty jokes, while openly ogling anyone or anything wearing a skirt.) I call works like this Dark Whimzy, because the Whimsy is twisted a bit.
The Man With Two Brains makes this mistake. It is absolutely for adults only, containing adult language, adults-only sexual situations and humor, and some nudity. If you love Dark Whimsy and don’t mind adult content mixed in, I guess this movie is for you. If you love Dark Whimsy and do mind adult content mixed in, then, like me, you will probably be of two brains minds about this film.
You see, I think that the incongruity of true Whimsy and this type of adult material is unconsciously felt by most viewers. Where Dark Whimsy is a symbiosis, the phrase “adult whimsy” is an oxymoron. Thus I coined the word “Whimzy” and I have come to believe that this dissonance weakens works that might otherwise have been great.
In this case I gave a 🕶️8.4 | 🌚11 🌝8 to a movie which could have instead been a 😎😎10.1 | 🌚11 🌝10.
And I haven’t even delved into the topic of nudity in film, which I consider to be a far more problematic issue than other adult content. That’s a conversation for later.
In the end, I’m generously giving The Man With Two Brains an A-minus for its non-stop laughs. It really is funny, but for your guidance, I’d say about 75 percent of the humor is clean, while the remaining 25 percent is not. If they had made it a film for all audiences, it could have earned my A-plus rating, and a recommendation without reservations.
Onwards!
+ last viewed (4) 2025-04-13, HDX7, 1.85v, 1D
+ first viewed 1983, ThX, 1.85, 1
+ 🪐🌎⚛️⚕️💘🌑🥸😛
+ ❌1️⃣ Light adults-only content. | R
+ 😡+0 😵💫+0 🤬-1 🤭-2^ 🫣-1
+ 👀⬇️1️⃣ ➖🗿
+ ✝️ -2 ➖🩳👙👙
+ ✡️ -1 ➖🤬(🌓🖤)
+ 🗽 -0 ➖(🤎)
Last updated 2025-04-14
Please do not include spoilers in the comments.
Spoilers are permitted in the Chat for this work.