Big Business

Dir: Jim Abrahams

1988

***

Big Business has dated somewhat as you'd expect from an 80's comedy dealing with twins and mistaken identity. However, there will always be something rather timeless about watching Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin play opposite characters, opposite each other, two ways round. If the idea of two sets of identical twins being separated and matched with the wrong twin (and then separated again) sounds like a silly farce then you'd be correct but then it would be worth pointing out that this idea is actually based on William Shakeseare's Comedy of Errors (with a little bit of mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper thrown in for good measure). Watching Jim Abrahams' 88 comedy does feed the idea that Shakeseare was in fact two different people somewhat, especially when you compare it to Macbeth or Othello. Personally I believe the 80's provided some of the greatest Shakeseare adaptations ever made, highlighting that not all of the bard's work is a masterpiece but neither is it always the stuff of sheer boredom you remember from school. Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin are both on great form, it's hard to believe that they were both second choices behind Barbra Streisand and Goldie Hawn. It's no masterpiece but it's extremely enjoyable and impossible to dislike. I giggled consistently throughout.