After failing to receive any sort of validation from the Academy for
his past two pictures ("The Truman Show" and "Man
On The Moon") Jim Carrey returns to the laugh vehicle film
that we all came to know and love him for. In doing so he teams with
the Farrelly Brothers, who brought us "There's Something About
Mary" a couple years back. The result is a film that is big on
laughs, but with a plot that can only be described as paper thin.
Charlie (Jim Carrey) is an eighteen year member of the Rhode Island
State Police. In his youth he had a failed marriage, due to his wife
having an affair. His wife ran off with the man she was having the affair
with, and left the children that were the product of the affair to live
with Charlie. Ever since this time Charlie has been avoiding confrontation
in whatever shape or form it may be.
This manifests itself in the early stages of the movie. When he asks
a man to move his car after it has been parked in a one hour parking
space for three days, the man simply throws his keys at Charlie telling
him to park it out back. Charlie obeys, and this continues until there
comes the straw that broke the camel's back. It comes in the form of
a woman at a grocery store asking Charlie if she go in front of him,
because she is in a hurry. Charlie, only wanting to purchase a newspaper,
complies and the woman summons her children who are pushing a cart that
is overflowing with groceries. This is the last straw for Charlie, who
goes through a metamorphosis that leaves us with his alter ego, Hank.
Hank is all about confrontation and creates many of the finer moments
in the movie. He fixes Charlie's wrongs. He does so in a number of ways
that include finding a new parking place for that car, that was so politely
parked out back a short time before.
It is at this point in the movie that we meet Irene (Renee Zellweger).
She is in some sort of trouble with the law and Charlie has to transport
her to New York for interrogation. It turns out that this is just a
ruse, and that she is in far greater peril than was originally imagined.
People want her dead and with nowhere else to turn, she looks to Charlie/Hank
for help. Along the way we get introduced to crooked cops, a tagalong who goes
by the name of Whitey, amongst many others. Charlie's pseudo-kids make
a number of appearances and add lots of laughs to the film, but this,
as anyone would suspect, is Jim Carrey's movie.
He gives a madcap performance as the schizo dynamic duo that is Charlie
and Hank. The scene where he changes into Hank for the first time is
a delight to behold. His face tells the whole story. Whenever he becomes
Hank, throughout the rest of the movie, you know who he is, even without
the Farrelly Brothers use of closeups to slap you across the face with
the fact that he has changed. There is a time later in the film when
Charlie and Hank are arguing with one another while trying to avoid
bullets and track down Irene. It is during this sequence that Carrey
truly shines. His gift for physical humor is on display, as it has never
been before. He literally has to pick HIMself up and get thrown into a car, to imitate
Hank picking up Charlie and throwing him into the car. These are just
a couple of the moments that show why Jim Carrey is one of our most
gifted comedic actors working today, and that he should be recognized
as such. Thanks to the Golden Globes for doing so.
Aside from Carrey, this movie is fairly weak. Renee Zellweger is given
very little to work with in the role of Irene. She isn't even given
a chance to shine in this role, unlike her delightfully sweet and charming
work in "Jerry Maguire".
The other actors basically collect their paychecks and do little else
with the exception of the three guys who play Charlie's kids.
The plot plays itself out merely to allow for the laughs that Jim Carrey
will provide. It's not nearly as beautifully conceived a film as "There's
Something About Mary," which it will undoubtedly be compared to
as time goes by. At the end of the movie, the film steers itself completely
away from what little plot there was and just tells us what happened
to all the bad guys through some sort of "Dukes of Hazzard"
type narration.
All in all, this is a Jim Carrey vehicle at heart and nothing much more.
It has it's brilliant moments that will remind you of the side-splitting
laughter that was inherent in "There's Something About Mary,"
but aside from these moments the film is just sort of there. It will
most assuredly make you laugh, but not with the charm and steadiness
of the aforementioned film.
I would still recommend it, however.... Simply for the laughs.
Besides how can a guy not recommend a movie that features a nunchuk
wielding midget?
