The unlikely comedy that always makes Marion Cotillard cry
Marion Cotillard isn’t a name you often associate with comedy, so perhaps it’s fitting that we’re discussing her shedding a tear at a film that’s supposed to make you laugh. Comedies, however, often have a unique ability to evoke emotions beyond humour. The very best in the genre play with pathos in creative ways, offering up the full spectrum of life. It’s not easy to pull off, and only truly great comedies achieve it, which makes Cotillard’s revelation both surprising and entirely understandable.
Cotillard is an undeniably serious actor. We’re used to seeing her in Christopher Nolan blockbusters like The Dark Knight or Inception or in moving independent foreign language films like Two Days, One Night, so it’s perhaps jarring to think of her at home on her sofa watching the daftness of a grown man with his face thrust within inches of white dog dirt.
But maybe it’s less jarring to imagine her crying at such a scene? Or perhaps it’s more jarring? I’m not sure, but either way, I’m quite certain that she’s the only person in history who has wept to the Will Ferrell and John C Reilly screwball buddy comedy Step Brothers.
“It might sound weird, but I always cry at the end of Step Brothers,” says Cotillard. “I’ve seen the movie ten times, and it still touches me at the end when Will Ferrell sings. You don’t expect to cry watching that type of comedy, but I always do”.
I’m sure many people reading this will agree—it does sound strange. They’ll recall John C Reilly intermittently shouting “boats ‘n’ hoes” into his microphone during Will Ferrell’s surprisingly beautiful rendition of Por Ti Volare, a Spanish version of Andrea Bocelli’s Con Te Partirò. Or they’ll think of the bizarre fantasy sequences that punctuate the performance, like Reilly as a bow-and-arrow-wielding centaur and Kathryn Hahn’s character as a woodland elf leaping toward him. Or even Ferrell, dressed as a lumberjack, knocking down a door and talking about his “seed” while magically removing Andrea Savage’s clothes Bruce Almighty-style.
But all of that ignores the entire rest of the movie. It ignores the fact that this scene represents Brennan and Dale as the screw-ups, the failure children counterposed with Adam Scott’s successful life. But they’re also the ones with artistic talent, and in the moment where none of the ‘competent’ adults can save the day, their artistry, Brennan’s “combination of Fergie and Jesus” voice, and Dale’s sick drum solo bring the party back together.
It’s a message to all the musicians, artists and anyone who has pursued a creative career rather than a stable, financially promising one that they do have value and that they aren’t screw-ups. It’s the comedic inverse of the masterful Daniel Johnston song, ‘Story of an Artist’. And frankly, is it any wonder that an actor would cry at that?
When you consider that Ferrell and Reilly are actually performing their parts in this scene, you can’t help but feel a little touched. After all, it’s the fucking Catalina wine mixer, and they’re out there making it on the biggest stage in the southwest.
