Fun with Dick and Jane

The most surprising thing to me about Fun with Dick and Jane, aside from the fact that I really liked it, was that Jim Carrey wasn't hamming it up nearly as much as I was expecting. Maybe it was Tea Leoni who didn't let him completely hog the spotlight, or maybe the guy is mellowing somewhat, but either way, he wasn't overwhelming. Think Jim Carrey from The Truman Show as opposed to Jim Carrey from The Mask or even Bruce Almighty. This combination of a toned-down Carrey with extremely funny scenes and dialogue made this movie surprisingly fun to watch.

The story takes place in 2000, prior to the Enron scandal and that hardened criminal Martha Stewart, wherein Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) has just gotten a huge promotion to VP of Communications at Globodyne Corporation. Unbeknownst to him, of course, the company is on the verge of tanking, as CEO Jack McAllister (Alec Baldwin) has been siphoning off money from false profits and just sold more than 80% of his stock. He pretty much screws the whole town over, as the 6,000 employees of Globodyne suddenly find themselves jobless, with worthless pension plans and little savings left after the company's stock crashed within a manner of minutes. Now, with Dick's wife, Jane (Tea Leoni), having quit her job just before the bust, and over 6,000 other competitors in a scarce job market, Dick and Jane are forced to take drastic measures and sell their plasma tv! There's still one bright spot for them, however, which is that despite selling their BMW, losing their electricity and being forced to shower in the neighbors' lawn sprinklers, they have still managed to continue the employment of their maid. Whew.

The movie really picks up at this point, when Dick and Jane are finally forced to choose a life of crime. Their initial attempts are somewhat clumsy, but Dick manages to find success even during his first try, when he steals a slushee from a convenience store and saves $1.25. I had found the movie to be rather unexceptional up until this point, at which time things really got really good. Each new caper comes with a different costume and a more elaborate and financially rewarding plan, and it was during one of these such scenes that I started crying from laughing so hard. While Jim Carrey seems able to produce all sorts of weird voices, never have I been so amused as when he sounded identical to Michael Winslow from Spaceballs and the Police Academy movies. Granted, Carrey and Leoni had some help from vocal synthesizers, but nevertheless, it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Tea Leoni was an excellent match up for Jim Carrey--the two worked so well together, and Leoni even managed to prevent Carrey from constantly upstaging her. She seemed perfectly at ease in her role, and I was surprised at her ability to be so funny. With the addition of several supporting characters, like former Globodyne CFO Frank Boscom (Richard Jenkins) and ex coworker Oz (Carlos Jacott), who were both extremely complimentary to the story, I found myself surprisingly entertained at almost every moment. I really loved the goofy but witty look at corruption in big corporations, and the movie always kept things from getting too serious.

I definitely recommend Fun with Dick and Jane, because despite a somewhat unremarkable start during the first half hour or so, when this movie went into full stride it was hilarious. True, if you hate Jim Carrey then stay away, because even though he's not as in your face as he has been in the past, the style of humor is still very much the same. But otherwise this is a silly (but not immature) flick that will easily get some laughs.