Since wringing a whole book out of the relationship between two movie critics, even ones as famous as Siskel and Ebert, is probably no simple feat, Singer had to rely on several angles. Some of these are a bit ho-hum, such as his efforts to get to the bottom of how they ended up on TV in the first place or why Siskel's name came first or how the whole "thumbs up/thumbs down" thing developed. These guys didn't exactly live juicy lives, but it is interesting reading about their early careers, especially when getting more details about Ebert's fleeting yet still-surprising partnerships with The Sex Pistols and fellow breast-enthusiast Russ Meyer. The passages about Siskel's pranks on Ebert and an ill-fated co-star spot for a skunk on their show are amusing enough. The conclusions of both mens' lives are sincerely sad. But the real core of this story is how two rival Chicago film critics came together to insult each other on the air and learned to develop a friendship that transcended the drastic differences in their personalities. That facet of Opposable Thumbs gets a sincere thumbs up from me.
