Jim Carrey is undoubtedly one of the greatest comedy actors of our time. Despite the fact that the majority of his exposure revolves around his unbelievably alien-esque facial expressions and rubber body dances, he is also capable of displaying genuine emotion, and he has that signature grin recognizable from 20 feet away on any magazine shelf. Almost makes you wonder what kind of workouts he does.
In Liar Liar, Jim Carrey gives his best performance to date (still his best as of here in 2003), playing the brown nosing lawyer who is in the process of manipulating his way to the top, via a series of lie-saturated performances. Carrey sets the retardedness on the back burner and his performance for this character, Fletcher Reede, is more along the lines of the lawyer who uses manipulation as the prime catalyst for his influence. Normally, this kind of character would be very annoying, but since Carrey's playing the part, I guess some might say he's too funny to be annoying, others might say "Well, nothing is more annoying than his usual acting tactics, bring it on."
What makes it so funny is that most of us have known at least one or two people that fall into the "pathological liar" category. Fletcher's habitual lying is disabled suddenly by the birthday wish of his son. After ditching his son's birthday party in a feeble attempt to move "up" in the company by going "down" on one of their higher-ups, Fletcher Reede receives the ultimate comeuppance -- a barricade that prevents him from telling anything but the truth. The concept is never explained, but it doesn't need to be.
Well, about the time that the bedwetting is over, the company lady moans softly and turns to him and says, "That was wonderful. Was it good for you?"
"I've had better."
Well, there you have it. This is the curse of not being able to lie, and it gets Fletcher in all kinds of trouble at work, at home, even with complete strangers.
While the atmosphere and characters of this movie just scream "family", the script does not. With lines like "I've had better", or worse yet, "I've heard that if you hold it, you can damage the prostate gland, making it very difficult to get an erection or even become aroused." parents might cringe in disbelief that they were led into letting their children watch a movie with these kind of suggestive themes. Not that they don't already hear it in school, but still.
Fletcher's main objective in this movie is to make partners with the head honcho of the whole place, Mr. Allen, and in order to do that, he has to win a case involving a custody dispute between Mr. and Mrs. Cole. Before Fletcher loses his ability to lie, he has his manipulative story all set and ready to go to help Mrs. Cole win the case, despite her having committed adultery, which by the rules would automatically disqualify her from claiming anything that belongs to him, including the kids. Well, now that Fletcher can't lie, he virtually has no case.
"With a prenup and proof of adultery, what's your case?"
"Our case is simply this. Buhhh.. Buhhh.. Dididit, splat, sshhhhhhhhABUDFLADUFALUBADAFLUH! Ahhh, ahwee wee wee, weeeeeeeee we, sigh."
Well, with no case, Fletcher has to find a way to stall this case until the 24 hour curse comes to an end. Can he do it? Should he do it?
As mentioned earlier, Carrey's acting is at an apex here. Sure, he has "his" moments, but this is a real character he's playing here, and he has to take Fletcher into places that one would never expect Carrey to go. Maura Tierney is also outstanding as Fletcher Reede's much more grounded ex-wife, and Justin Cooper, the tenth of over 1,000 kids auditioning for the role, is simply perfect as Max, their son.
Cary Elwes does a good job being the "magoo" boyfriend of Audrey, and Anne Haney does a bang-up job playing Fletcher's lovable old secretary. Then there's Jennifer Tilly, the raspy voiced beyotch who's trying to get custody of the kids in spite of her single act of indescretion (Seven.) Yeah, whatever. She's almost as annoying as Rosie Perez was in It Could Happen To You.
Liar Liar DVD Features
Having just picked up the DVD a few days ago, I am (not surprisingly) pleased. There is a single deleted scene included on the DVD which is well worth watching, it has a sort of 12 Angry Men feel about it, but was cut for bogging down the plot (understandably). Nonetheless it is a great scene and well worth watching if you are already a fan of the movie. The director's commentary is also a lot of fun -- Tom Shadyac sure knows how to keep a person's attention!
This is one of the best movies you'll ever see, Carrey fan or not. Would I lie to you?
In this uproarious hit from the director and producers of The Nutty Professor, comic genius Jim Carrey stars as a fast-talking attorney and habitual l...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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