
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305010253
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL H. PRICE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MORANIS IS AT HIS BEST IN `SPLITTING HEIRS'

Eric Idle and John Cleese, partners of long standing in England's Monty Python comedy troupe, are reunited to hilariously preposterous effect in "Splitting Heirs," the new import from Idle's London-based Prominent Features film company.

Written by Idle as a star vehicle for Rick Moranis, the picture restores that American comic to the sort of nebbish dignity he has enjoyed in such Hollywood assignments as Ron Howard's "Parenthood" (1989) and Mel Brooks' "Spaceballs" (1987). More commonly typecast as a self-aware nerd, Moranis does his best work in the tradition of his artistic ancestors Arnold Stang and Don Knotts, playing a maladroit sort who fancies himself to be fully in control.

And even Don Knotts in his prime would have been hard-put to top Moranis' portrayal, here, of a brash Yank who ascends to a British dukedom. Unknown to Moranis - as well as to everyone else - is the truth that the true heir is the luckless nobody (Idle) who has become Moranis' best chum.

The identity crisis has to do with Idle's ditsy mother (Barbara Hershey), who as a ditsy "new" mother 30-odd years ago misplaced her baby and then claimed another abandoned infant as her own.

When Idle stumbles onto the truth of the matter, he consults a shady lawyer - and here's where John Cleese comes in - and undertakes a campaign to do away with Moranis in order to claim his rightful station. Complications mount when Hershey starts putting the moves on Idle, unaware that he's her son.

Belly-laughs abound, especially when Cleese keeps barging in on the plot even though Idle has told him to get lost.

Three name-brand comedians make the price of admission a bargain, and Hershey - seldom regarded as a farceur - registers so strongly as a lust-driven scatterbrain that she comes near stealing her several scenes with Idle. Newcomer Catherine Zeta Jones contributes winning support as the social climber who intends to marry into nobility, never mind which fellow turns out to be the genuine duke.

\ "Splitting Heirs" A Universal release showing at the Valley View Mall 6. Rated PG-13 for language, mature situations, nudity and slapstick violence.

by CNB