Fun With Dick and Jane
Fun With Dick and Jane
December 20; Loews Boston Common
* * ¼ (out of 4)
The title is almost accurate. The movie is fun… at times, though not necessarily with both of the main characters. I will admit that the only reason I had any interest in this movie was to see Jim Carrey make a return to the screwball, goofy comedies he started in, which is certainly what the trailer made this one look like. Unfortunately, Fun With Dick and Jane is another case of a movie being bad mispromoted, and the very sad part is that it probably would have been better if it were actually the movie the trailers made it out to be.
All of the kind of funny stuff in the trailers that show Dick and Jane robbing convenience stores and coffee shops? That all comes within a three-minute montage that says, “Look how bad they are at this.” The real focus of the movie is how the two try to maintain their family and lifestyle after the carpet has been pulled out from under them – Dick, newly promoted to VP of Communications, is held partially responsible for the event that sent his company into a nosedive. As he and Jane work through a number of odd jobs and misfires to stay afloat, they begin to discover that there might be more sinister forces at work, something involving the CEO and CFO of his company. And with the backhanding CEO played by Alec Baldwin, you know there must be something funny there, right?
The only funny stuff is when people are directly mugging for the camera, with most of these moments coming from Baldwin and Carrey alone. Not that those two need a whole lot of help. But shoving the two of them in front of a camera and telling them to act goofy is not enough to hold a plot like this together. What is hard here is that Fun With Dick and Jane tries very hard to at least make you think that it presents a deeper message about the evils of corporate America. But the blending of screwball comedy doesn’t quite mix well, because for a good amount of the film, the only reminder you have of the corporate idea is how far the family has fallen. Suddenly, the corporate enemy is huge and looming, and the focus of the film. It is not a well-orchestrated change.
But I think that won’t be important to many people. The big selling point of the movie is that Jim Carrey is doing a full-blown comedy again, for the first time since Bruce Almighty (though some might say it’s been longer than that). And yes, he’s funny, when he is allowed to do rubber-bodied shenanigans or act crazy. But there’s not enough. Alec Baldwin’s painfully funny southern CEO adds a bit more, but that very fact makes me wonder if Carrey is even capable of the unabashed insanity of which he used to be a master. His relative calmness compared to, say, an Ace Ventura, is not necessarily a bad thing, but if we’re never to see anything to that level again, it is a sad loss.
Fun With Dick and Jane is OK… Carrey and Baldwin own the movie, though that isn’t a huge feat, nor is it one that comes with bragging rights. It is a unspectacular comedy, but it seems like that is what happens to comedy nowadays when you don’t have the means or approval for something like Wedding Crashers or 40-Year Old Virgin. It’s just disappointing to see one of the former undisputed kings of comedy dethroned so casually, and even moreso to think that he might not be capable of ever reclaiming that throne.
December 20; Loews Boston Common
* * ¼ (out of 4)
The title is almost accurate. The movie is fun… at times, though not necessarily with both of the main characters. I will admit that the only reason I had any interest in this movie was to see Jim Carrey make a return to the screwball, goofy comedies he started in, which is certainly what the trailer made this one look like. Unfortunately, Fun With Dick and Jane is another case of a movie being bad mispromoted, and the very sad part is that it probably would have been better if it were actually the movie the trailers made it out to be.
All of the kind of funny stuff in the trailers that show Dick and Jane robbing convenience stores and coffee shops? That all comes within a three-minute montage that says, “Look how bad they are at this.” The real focus of the movie is how the two try to maintain their family and lifestyle after the carpet has been pulled out from under them – Dick, newly promoted to VP of Communications, is held partially responsible for the event that sent his company into a nosedive. As he and Jane work through a number of odd jobs and misfires to stay afloat, they begin to discover that there might be more sinister forces at work, something involving the CEO and CFO of his company. And with the backhanding CEO played by Alec Baldwin, you know there must be something funny there, right?
The only funny stuff is when people are directly mugging for the camera, with most of these moments coming from Baldwin and Carrey alone. Not that those two need a whole lot of help. But shoving the two of them in front of a camera and telling them to act goofy is not enough to hold a plot like this together. What is hard here is that Fun With Dick and Jane tries very hard to at least make you think that it presents a deeper message about the evils of corporate America. But the blending of screwball comedy doesn’t quite mix well, because for a good amount of the film, the only reminder you have of the corporate idea is how far the family has fallen. Suddenly, the corporate enemy is huge and looming, and the focus of the film. It is not a well-orchestrated change.
But I think that won’t be important to many people. The big selling point of the movie is that Jim Carrey is doing a full-blown comedy again, for the first time since Bruce Almighty (though some might say it’s been longer than that). And yes, he’s funny, when he is allowed to do rubber-bodied shenanigans or act crazy. But there’s not enough. Alec Baldwin’s painfully funny southern CEO adds a bit more, but that very fact makes me wonder if Carrey is even capable of the unabashed insanity of which he used to be a master. His relative calmness compared to, say, an Ace Ventura, is not necessarily a bad thing, but if we’re never to see anything to that level again, it is a sad loss.
Fun With Dick and Jane is OK… Carrey and Baldwin own the movie, though that isn’t a huge feat, nor is it one that comes with bragging rights. It is a unspectacular comedy, but it seems like that is what happens to comedy nowadays when you don’t have the means or approval for something like Wedding Crashers or 40-Year Old Virgin. It’s just disappointing to see one of the former undisputed kings of comedy dethroned so casually, and even moreso to think that he might not be capable of ever reclaiming that throne.
posted by Matt S. at
11:38 AM
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