Splitting Heirs

{{Infobox film

| name = Splitting Heirs

| image = Splitting Heirs.jpg

| caption = Theatrical release poster.

| director = Robert Young

| producer = {{ubl|Simon Bosanquet|Redmond Morris}}

| writer = Eric Idle

| starring = {{plainlist|

| music = Michael Kamen

| cinematography = Tony Pierce-Roberts

| editing = John Jympson

| studio = Prominent Features

| distributor = Universal Pictures (through United International Pictures)

| released = {{Film date|df=y|1993|04|02|UK|1993|04|30|US}}

| runtime = 87 minutes

| country = United Kingdom

| language = English

| budget =

| gross = $5 million (US/UK)

}}

Splitting Heirs is a 1993 British black comedy film directed by Robert Young and starring Eric Idle, Rick Moranis, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cleese and Sadie Frost. It features music by Michael Kamen. It was entered in the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.{{cite web |title=Festival de Cannes: Splitting Heirs |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2584/year/1993.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110916100927/http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2584/year/1993.html |archive-date=September 16, 2011 |accessdate=22 August 2009 |work=festival-cannes.com}}

Plot

The film centers on the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Bournemouth, upon which misfortune has fallen throughout history, leading its members to believe that the family is cursed. The most recent heir, Thomas Henry Butterfly Rainbow Peace, was left in a restaurant as an infant in the 1960s; by the time his parents remembered him, he had disappeared. Meanwhile, in the 1990s Tommy Patel has grown up in an Asian/Indian family in Southall, never doubting his ethnicity despite being taller than anyone else in the house, fair-haired, blue-eyed, light-skinned—and not liking curry. From the family corner shop he commutes to the City where he works for the Bournemouth family's stockbroking firm, handling multimillion-pound deals.

Tommy is given the job of acting as host to the visiting American representative of the firm, Henry Bullock, who turns out to be the son of the head of the firm, the present Duke. They become friends and the friendship survives Henry becoming the new Duke when his father dies. Circumstantial evidence shows that the true Bournemouth heir is actually Tommy; we see a series of family portraits each of which captures something of Tommy's facial characteristics, and his Indian mother tells him the story of his adoption. He consults the lawyer who dealt with his adoption, Raoul P. Shadgrind, who says Tommy has no hope of proving his claim, but plants the idea of him obtaining his rightful place in the family by getting Henry out of the way; Shadgrind himself then engineers a variety of 'accidents' in the belief that he will share in the spoils as Tommy's partner. Love interest is provided by Tommy's and Henry's (shared at the same time) lover, later the new Duchess and their (shared at different times) mother, the dowager Duchess. The final resolution of everyone's doubts and misconceptions leaves everyone living "happily ever after – "well, for a bit, at least..."

Cast

{{Cast listing|

Rick Moranis as Henry
Eric Idle as Tommy
Barbara Hershey as Duchess Lucinda
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kitty
John Cleese as Shadgrind
Sadie Frost as Angela
Stratford Johns as Butler
Brenda Bruce as Mrs. Bullock
William Franklyn as Andrews
Charubala Chokshi as Mrs. Patel
Jeremy Clyde as 14th Duke
Richard Huw as Brittle
Eric Sykes as Jobson the Doorman
Bridget McConnel as Nanny

}}

Reception

The film received negative reviews. Vincent Canby of The New York Times praised the film, calling it "a genial entertainment in the Monty Python tradition, a series of madly illogical sequences that even include something a screen card identifies as 'Hindu Dream Sequence.'"{{cite web |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=1 May 1993 |title=Review/Film; Trying to Kill One's Way To a Title |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/01/movies/review-film-trying-to-kill-one-s-way-to-a-title.html |accessdate=6 September 2013 |work=The New York Times}}

Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "As farce, the film never acquires the necessary speed or cleverness. A cruelly protracted scene in which a bucknaked Idle is forced to hide in Jones' closet when Moranis comes calling gives you plenty of time to wonder whether the Nautilus franchise is still available for England."{{cite web |last=Kehr |first=Dave |date=30 April 1993 |title='Splitting Heirs' Has An Air Of Desperation About It |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/04/30/splitting-heirs-has-an-air-of-desperation-about-it/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171016175626/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-30/entertainment/9304300585_1_splitting-heirs-restaurant-cook-director-robert-young |archive-date=October 16, 2017 |access-date=6 September 2013 |work=Chicago Tribune}} In the Deseret News, Chris Hicks described the film as "sleazy" and "desperate".{{cite web |author=Hicks |first=Chris |date=9 May 1993 |title=Film review: Splitting Heirs |url=https://www.deseret.com/1993/5/9/20088694/film-review-splitting-heirs |accessdate=6 September 2013 |work=Deseret News}}

Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times said, "All the actors are fun to watch, particularly Moranis, who's playing a little swiftie this time, instead of one of his usual nerds. But the only really withering comic turn is supplied by Cleese, as Shadgrind the lawyer."{{cite web |last=Wilmington |first=Michael |date=1 May 1993 |title=MOVIE REVIEW : Idle's 'Splitting Heirs' Is Funny Despite Its Limits |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-01-ca-29623-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208212539/https://articles.latimes.com/1993-05-01/entertainment/ca-29623_1_idle-movies-splitting |archive-date=December 8, 2015 |access-date=6 September 2013 |work=Los Angeles Times}} Wilmington concluded though the film has laughs, "it doesn't have the brilliance of the old Pythons. It doesn't pulse, rage, knock your socks off."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film a mixed review, believing much of the humor would be lost on American audiences.{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=30 April 1993 |title=Splitting Heirs Movie Review & Film Summary (1993) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/splitting-heirs-1993 |accessdate=6 September 2013 |website=RogerEbert.com}} Though he said Hershey's performance was the film's highlight, he stated Idle and Moranis were miscast and should have switched roles.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 7% from 14 reviews.{{cite web | url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/splitting_heirs | title=Splitting Heirs | Rotten Tomatoes | website=Rotten Tomatoes}}

=Box office=

The film grossed £1.3 million ($1.9 million) in the United Kingdom.{{cite magazine|magazine=Screen International|date=14 January 1994|page=50|title=UK films and co-productions}} It performed poorly in the United States and Canada with a gross of just $3.2 million.{{cite news |date=May 4, 1993 |title=Weekend Box Office : 'Proposal' Still Doing Indecent Business |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-05-04-ca-30744-story.html |access-date=14 July 2012}}{{Mojo title|splittingheirs}}

=Cannes Film Festival=

Weeks after its disappointing U.S. theatrical performance, Splitting Heirs played in competition at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival. Its acceptance in the prestigious competition was widely criticized in the press. Critic Vincent Canby wrote that the film's presence "affronted nearly everybody, the English critics in particular."{{cite web |last=Canby |first=Vincent |date=27 May 1993 |title=Critic's Notebook; On Waffling at Cannes And Its Aftereffects |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/27/movies/critic-s-notebook-on-waffling-at-cannes-and-its-aftereffects.html |access-date=27 December 2024 |work=The New York Times}} Critic Kenneth Turan later wrote in The Guardian in 2002, "Every Cannes veteran has his or her list of ridiculous films that were somehow let in, from the dim British comedy Splitting Heirs to the unreleasable Johnny Depp-directed The Brave."{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/may/10/cannes2002.artsfeatures | title=A festival of art and prostitution | website=The Guardian}} In a 2018 interview, Eric Idle cited the U.K. press's criticism of the film's Cannes appearance as a deciding factor for his relocation to the United States.{{cite web |last=Wintle |first=Angela |date=12 December 2018 |title=Eric Idle interview: the former Python on having a separate wing from his wife and why he left London for LA |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/eric-idle-interview-the-former-python-on-having-a-separate-wing-from-his-wife-and-why-he-left-london-for-la-0lccdktrg |access-date=27 December 2024 |work=The Times of London}}

Home media

The film has been released on VHS in the United States and Britain. A Region 1 DVD has been released in the United States, and a Nordic edition Region 2 DVD was released in 2010.{{Cite web |title=En arving for mye |url=http://cdon.no/film/en_arving_for_mye-11717151 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312215915/http://cdon.no/film/en_arving_for_mye-11717151 |archive-date=2016-03-12 |website=cdon.no}} A Blu-ray was released through Mill Creek Entertainment on 19 October 2021.{{Cite web|title=Splitting Heirs – Retro VHS|url=https://www.millcreekent.com/products/splitting-heirs|access-date=18 November 2021|website=Mill Creek Entertainment}}