65

Once again, sorry for the lack of updates. I'm just hating this summer school nonsense... but I'm still producing stuff here and there, so stay tuned.

Also coming up: a long reflection on 24's two hour finale. And what a finale it was, with what I'd say is the series' cruelest ending yet. I won't spoil it (yet) other than to say I have NO solid idea what they're going to do next year, and I see some serious potential for the show to either: A- Produce a great follow-up that takes advantage of the scenerio laid out or B- Jump the shark.

64 - Fun With Dick and Jane review

Fun With Dick and Jane is like a set of teeth with no mouth to move them. The film has all the proper equipment for a biting satire, but lacks the nerve to use them. Instead, it seems more concerned with making a bland, near-thoughtless vehicle for Jim Carrey to perform his tired maniac routine.

Dick and Jane Harper (Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni) are one of those upper-middle class couples who do their best to act like a lower-upper class couple. They’ve got a nice house, a BMW, and a maid who spends so much time with their young son that he speaks more Spanish than English. Dick suddenly gets a promotion at his hi-tech software company, just in time for Dick to go on TV and have a humiliating meltdown as the corporation’s stock plummets to zero. Goodbye pension and savings, hello crippling debt. When Dick comes home to deliver the news, he finds a new hot tub being installed in the backyard.

The family starts selling off their assets, while Dick pursues employment. After his public disgrace, no one will hire him other than a Wal-Mart clone. That Dick drives the BMW to his new minimum wage job reminds me of House of Sand and Fog, where the formerly wealthy protagonist works two low wage jobs but retains his luxury car. Projecting the image of comfort and prosperity can be as important as actually having wealth, but Dick can’t even do that after his lawn is repossessed.

Predictably, Dick snaps, and improbably starts knocking over convenience stores in order to pay the mortgage. After all, Dick spuriously argues, why should he have to obey the law when crooks like the corrupt CEO of his former company (Alec Baldwin) raids the pension fund and vacations in Martha’s Vineyard? Certainly, he could never steal a fraction of what the CEO did. Of course, Dick doesn’t steal to feed his wife and son, but to buy back the plasma TV.

If it sounds like this gossamer film had more than enough material to be an intelligent, thoughtful comedy, then you are right. Instead, the filmmakers squander the potential by saturating the plot with goody but dull farce. While they could have played off the Harper’s mad thirst to sustain appearances for others it settles for nonsense such as the family showering in the neighbor’s sprinklers. Where Carrey could be playing a desperate man who feels emasculated by the inability to provide for his family as he wants, he mostly makes stupid faces and talks by rapidly altering the pitch and tone of his voice. At times, the camera lingers on Carrey as he does asinine things such as singing in the elevator or playing with the light switch, presumably because the audience can’t get enough of his childish antics.

It’s a shame that the filmmakers were concerned with producing a inoffensive moneymaker instead of a sharp look at Enron-esque failures, the necessity of braking the law, and the obsession with having a good image. The mass audience is provided for, but no one leaves challenged. During the film’s closing scene, a man makes a joke about Enron. I object, not because I would ever defend Enron, but because Fun With Dick and Jane hasn’t earned the right to crack that joke. Only a film that bothers to seriously tackle the subject of vile corporate thievery deserves to be allowed to crack a joke like that, and this film doesn’t come close.

2 out of 5