Though directed by their longtime collaborator, J.B. Rogers, the film Say It Isn't So has Peter and Bobby Farrelly's fingerprints all over it. Produced by the duo, it is being marketed as a Farrelly Brothers film, and doesn't disappoint in the areas of sick humor and taboo subject matter. It's the story of Gilly Noble (Chris Klein), a young man searching for his birth mother who finds true love instead. True, Jo Wingfield almost cut his ear off at hairdresser school, but who wouldn't forgive a girl when she looks like Heather Graham and loves sex? The hitch: he finds that he shares a birth mother WITH her. Ah, there's nothing quite like incest comedy!

After films like Dumb and Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself and Irene, most moviegoers are familiar enough with Farrelly-style comedy to know if they love it or hate it. If you hate it, save yourself some aggravation and skip Say It Isn't So. Less dark than Me, Myself and Irene, and more twisted than There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So puts the innocent-looking Chris Klein through indignities galore in the name of love.

The film is overflowing with sick, groan-inducing scenes that fill you with shame for your laughter. Fans of Sally Field will be shocked to see her dead-on performance as Valdine Wingfield, possibly the meanest white-trash mother on Earth. Let's just say it's a shock to see this Oscar winner's way of adding salt to a sandwich. She seems to revel in her chances to abuse her wheelchair-bound husband, Walter (played by Farrelly movie staple, Richard Jenkins).

As Gilly's only ally, Orlando Jones plays a part Indian, double amputee pilot, who just may be the most resourceful, unshakable sidekick ever. During the course of the film, he's hit by a truck, beaten with his own artificial legs, stuffed in a clothes dryer and placed on the roof. As a reward, Jones is given some of the best comedic moments in the film. Compared to Chris Klein's part, however, Jones' punishment is a cakewalk.

Indeed, Say It Isn't So seems to pile abuse and indignity on all of its characters, especially the nice ones. As the earnest and sensitive hero, Klein suffers most of all. After being labeled as a sex offender, he loses his perfect girlfriend and inherits her awful family. Dismissed from his animal control job, he winds up shoveling road kill while tolerating the constant (and profane) references to his inappropriate relationship to his sister. When the real long lost Wingfield son shows up, Gilly travels to Beaver, Oregon to win Jo back from her millionaire fiancé, against the wishes of Valdine.

Along the way, Gilly is pursued by the police, drugged, beaten, shipped to Mexico and committed. Even worse are the things he does to himself, including a disguise that has to go on the record as the most disgusting use of beauty parlor trash EVER. Klein also violates a cow, keeping with the Farrelly theme of bovine hostility evinced by Jim Carrey in Me, Myself and Irene.

Sound funny yet? Well, to some, it will be hilarious. The screening audience was howling with laughter. Those with a more refined sense of humor either suffered in silence, or had the sense to avoid this film altogether. Compared to the more amusing supporting characters, the two leads, Klein and Graham appear to exist only as the butt of very cruel jokes. By the end of the film, the meanness becomes more wince inducing than funny. In its defense, Say It Isn't So seems lighter, funnier and more likable than the overly vicious Me, Myself and Irene.

- Photo copyright: 20th Century Fox