LIAR, LIAR
Rebecca Wan
Directed by: Tom Shadyac
Written by: Todd Graff
Cast: Jim Carrey, (Fletcher Reede), Maura Tierney (Audrey Reede), Jennifer Tilly (Samantha Cole), Amanda Donohoe (Miranda), Swoosie Kurtz (Dana Appleton), Justin Cooper (Max Reede) Produced by : Universal Pictures / Imagine Entertainment Pictures
Rating : ***1/2
Run Time: Approx. 86 Minutes
This is one of those movies with a Disappointed Kid. You know, the tiny, usually male, cute-as-a-button child with a killer pout that's a little like Gary Coleman's (remember TV's Different Strokes?), but with less lip.
In films like this, the Disappointed Kid is the reason for the whole movie. Although looking well-fed and obviously well-tuned to the world, the Kid feels neglected by his father (hey is this a male thing, or is Hollywood trying to say that mothers are le ss assholic than fathers), who is usually too busy to take him to the park to Play Ball with his son. What is it with ball-playing and children anyway? My parents never threw baseballs at me and I've always been grateful for it. Anyway, instead of kicking his whiney kid's butt and telling him to eat some playdough, the father becomes terrifed at the thought of disappointing him again. This sets him off on a whole movie's worth of hardship in order to win back the title of Good Father.
On film, it's happened in things like MRS DOUBTFIRE, MULTIPLICITY (to a lesser extent) and JINGLE ALL THE WAY. In LIAR, LIAR, we see Jim Carrey's son (played by Justin Cooper) continually depressed because his (divorced) father, a really good lawyer (that is, "liar"), never has time to keep his promises to him. When he misses his birthday party after a number of other unkept contracts, the son wishes that for one day his father wouldn't be able to lie. And guess what? The wish comes true.
It's a good movie premise, allowing Carrey to channel his uncanny competence at similating toonness into a focused area. Carrey's character is scumbag lawyer Fletcher Reede, whose sudden inability to fake anything (agreement, pleasure, social graces) lead s to hilarious conflict between his social and survival instincts and his unwelcome, supernaturally enforced honesty. Check out the court scenes, where Carrey's conveys a strong sense of his character's knowing he's going to blurt out the truth about his client, and his desperate verbal looniness in an attempt to prevent it.
But there's also something very annoying about this movie. Maybe it's the attempt (one in a growing series of films) to contain Carrey's excellent talent at personifying schizophroenia and giving voice to the multiple opportunities at signification in an y given situation. Think about it: Jim Carrey as A FATHER? Wouldn't that require him to pretend to be a *real* person? What's the point of that?
Carrey carries off one part well: that of the madcap, hyperactive weekend father, clowning sweetly with his son. But when his ex-wife accepts an offer of marriage which includes a move to Boston, the plot's call for a realistic father-husband with hithert o unproven integrity kicks in. The vomit-inducing can-you-bear-to-break-his-heart puppy eyes (accompanying breathtakingly dull acting talent) of son Justin Cooper are bad enough, but when we are witness to Carrey's declarations of how genuine his love for his son is, the sheer shamminess of the genre as well as the unbelievability of Carrey as a mature character becomes clear.
Like director Tom Shadyac's other comic trophies -- ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE and THE NUTTY PROFESSOR -- LIAR, LIAR straddles a dotted line between wackiness and warmhearted reality. Unfortunately, in this and in the other Shadyac works, the reality part is flimsily drawn, boring and completely unbelievable.
But it's only in LIAR, LIAR that reality actually matters. As an almost romantic-comedy type deal, LIAR, LIAR has Carrey's first role as a *real* hero (comic or not). It's the first time he plays someone who isn't psychotic, mentally challenged, or just p lain evil. Someone whom the Universal Pictures press release actually describes as having "plenty of heart." Unfortunately, Carrey doesn't seem to know what to do wh en given lines with plenty of heart. His caring father bit is unconvincing and emptily cheery.
Still, LIAR, LIAR is great fun for most of its one and a half hours. I think it's worth $7, especially if your only post-Oscar and post-SFF (Singapore Film Festival) alternatives are ARMAGEDDON and THE BEAUTICIAN AND THE BEAST.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
Rebecca Wan wears her trousers rolled.
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