I always considered Me, Myself & Irene to be "just another Jim Carrey movie", but in retrospect this is probably one of Jim's greatest performances ever. I guess Me, Myself & Irene doesn't have as much of a "point" as the other films. Not that Ace Ventura does or anything...

Jim Carrey undertakes two roles in Me, Myself & Irene, and pulls them both off with inhuman ease. The first is that of Charlie Baileygates, his own born identity. Charlie is an easy-going guy in the police force, with his smile stretched tightly across his face.

The second is Hank Evans, a short and sweet name for a tall and not-so-sweet character. Charlie's "other personality", Hank, barely speaks above a whisper. But when he does, look out.

You see, Charlie's problem is that he can't stick up for himself. In the beginning, we see Charlie getting married. But it's not long before Charlie ends up in a fight he didn't start (see also Anger Management). His wife defends the other guy, a three foot tall black limo driver Shonte (hilariously played by Tony Cox). Sparks fly between the two. Flash forward to the hospital, where she's about to have her baby. I suppose you can guess what happens.

You know, it's funny how man reacts when his heart is broken. Some men break down and cry. Others take out an Uzi and climb a clock tower. But Charlie Baileygates didn't seem to react at all. He just swallowed hard, felt that slab of heartache slide over the lump in his throat, and locked it all away.

Years later, the three triplet babies have grown up, and Charlie is still in the police force. Nothing much has changed, no new ladies in Charlie's life. His neighbor still takes his newspaper, his pleas to a ten-year old girl to jumprope somewhere else besides the street is met with a resounding "F*ck off!", he's still doing favors for the guy in the barber shop.

Then one day in the grocery store, a lady holding one item asks if she can skip ahead of him in line. Just after he steps aside, she summons two children wielding shopping carts overflowing. And Charlie just snaps. A simple but effective drum solo plays while Jim Carrey "transforms" while trying not to laugh.

Say hello to Hank...
Charlie gets a montage of revenge sequences, which I won't sit here and rehash them, but I gotta say it's pretty cool the way Carrey whistles along with the Cake song in the background, even though the music obviously isn't playing on the scene, but edited in later. This happens at other points in the movie too, it's pretty neat.

So how does Irene fit into all of this? You'll see soon enough. Charlie is called upon to escort her to another police station, because she has been accused of a hit and run. Of course we all know she didn't do it. A mediocre backstory unfolds involving Irene's ex-boyfriend Dickie, who "has the police in his back pocket", and his cohort, Lt. Gerke, played by Chris Cooper. The two guys are worried that she knows too much of their plight, and so begins a game of cat and mouse.

Not too fond of Charlie and his alter-ego Hank, Irene has no choice but to stay with him... and so a love triangle develops. The results are pretty hilarious. Charlie's a well-meaning guy, but he has to take responsibility for the actions of Hank, who does it all for the nookie.

Jim Carrey is a real trip to watch as he goes back and forth between these two guys. At one point, Hank is smoking a cigarette and Charlie takes over, panicking at the sight of a cigarette in HIS mouth! The interactions between Irene and the two guys are good, but the best moments are when Charlie and Hank interact with each other. Carrey has a hell of a time acting out the physical fight that ensues between the two, having one personality physically carrying the other one after being injured, and throwing himself out of a car. Word has it that Carrey insisted on doing many of his own stunts, including the one where Irene dropkicks him and he falls backwards over a fence.

So as you can see, Irene is no pushover herself. Renee Zellwegger brings to life this short, skinny blonde with a weight in two digit figures. She is gentle and tough, sensitive and cautious, all the usual stuff that makes the obligatory dream girl. She gets to get mad a lot in the movie, but not without reason. If you were a girl, someone had just tried to kill you, and you walked into a motel room to see the only guy who could help, lying in bed with your photo on the other pillow and a bottle of lotion on the nightstand, you'd probably freak a bit too.

Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee & Jerod Mixon work wonderfully as the three kids (Jamaal, Lee Harvey & Shonte Jr. respectively). You never doubt for a second that they love Charlie. The relationship between them actually works without being cheesy. But then that might be because every other word uttered by them is the F-word. Carrey is surprisingly good at "playing along" with them, but it's even funnier in his case because you don't expect it.

Chris Cooper plays his usual game, Daniel Greene is good and hateable as Dickie, and Robert Forster pulls more than his own weight as the head officer.

For his first acting job, Michael Bowman takes on the role of Whitey, an outlandish friend who joins Charlie, Hank and Irene on the journey. He's a great "icebreaker" and far more than just a plot device to disorient Hank's "defense" a little bit.

The DVD commentary by the Farrelly Bros. has its great moments; they talk a lot about the music in the film and homages to other Jim Carrey films. I'm surprised they didn't point out the zoom-out shot of Charlie and Irene on the motorcycle; it's straight out of Dumb & Dumber. On the other hand, the first half is replete with mentions of people in the background and who they are. This is so-and-so's wife, this is our sister, this guy lived next door. After a while it's like "Okay, we don't care!"

The DVD also features ten deleted scenes. One involves something we didn't know about on Charlie's first night with Irene's prisoner photo. Another elaborates on the truth about the "prize cow". The best one, though, is when Hank tells Irene about what his father was like. It's a must-see, one of Carrey's finest acting moments EVER. It's not surprising that they say this is the hardest thing they ever had to cut, what is surprising is what a pathetic reason there was for it. But oh well, it ain't my movie!

If you're looking for a movie that has a moral or lesson, one that teaches you something, you won't find it here. Me, Myself & Irene is mostly a romantic comedy that is 90% comedy and 10% romance. The whole romance thing is better than it was, perhaps since we've had time to get past the fact that "Deep Inside of You" isn't quite the heart-tugger that "How's It Gonna Be" was.

The movie has great music and gorgeous scenery; however, the nasty language is through the roof so you'd probably be smart to save it for laundry day while the kids are in school. The movie is perfect for the college crowd, something cool to get together and watch and get drunk. Those who found the "dog fight" in There's Something About Mary disturbing will no doubt find the "prize cow" scene here disturbing as well. But, as the Brothers pointed out, it's not due to any meanness on the part of any characters.

The DVD is worth a rent for that one deleted scene and for a movie that will take you out of this world for a couple hours.

Top Ten Me, Myself & Irene Quotes

10.) "Look, I've seen it firsthand, the guy's nuttier than squirrel turds." ~Lt. Gerke

9.) "Hank... I appreciate you wanting to help, but do you think that we could get Charlie back out here, have a little huddle?" ~Irene
"No problem. While I'm at it why don't you climb that pole and take a big steamy piss on those power lines? Look I'm not here to twist your niblets. I'm here to save your life. But if I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna need total unanonaninomity." ~Hank

8.) "Our daddy may have Advanced delusionary schizophrenia with involuntary narcissistic rage. But he is a very gentle person!" ~Jamaal

7.) "You think just coz I'm small you can just push me around? Well, come on my friend. Let's boogie! I'm gonna give a little lesson in low center of gravity!" ~Limo driver
"Hey, cut it, stop it now, Sir!" ~Charlie
"Don't patronize me with that 'Sir' crap!" ~Limo driver

6.) "He's so stupid he thinks Caluculus is a g*dd*mn emperor." ~Lee Harvey
"Yeah well you think Polypeptide's a motherf*ckin' toothpaste!" ~Shonte Jr.

5.) "Did you just refer to yourself in the fourth person?" ~Irene

4.)
Charlie: "Will you stay with me no matter what?"
Layla: "Of course, Charlie."
Charlie: "Well, what if I had to move to the Arctic and you could never come home and you had to eat whale blubber for the rest of your life, would you still stay with me?"
Layla: "Yeah, I'd stay. But I hope that never happens."

(after Layla dumps him for Shonte the limo driver)
Charlie (to Layla): "But you said you'd eat whale blubber."
Shonte: "Oh she'll be eating blubber allright, just as soon as I free Willy."

3.) "Price check on Vagiclean, aisle five. I repeat: price check on Vagiclean, aisle five. That's Vagiclean. We've got a customer down here with a full-on fallopian fungus. She's baking a loaf of bread and I think it's sourdough." ~Hank

2.) (after seeing Jim Carrey with a double chin) "Look at that, now you can blow your nose and wipe your ass at the same time." ~Lee Harvey Baileygates

1.) "Just because I rock doesn't mean I'm made of stone." ~Hank

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older