After a poor and relatively unsuccessful outing in “The Cable Guy,” it seems that Jim Carrey is back.
All of you out there that loved “Ace Ventura” and “Dumb and Dumber” now have a whole new movie to adore, worship, memorize. “Liar, Liar” displays the comedian is his best form, perhaps even better than in those two movies.
“Liar, Liar” seems to understand the popularity and appeal of Jim Carrey much better than “The Cable Guy” did. Carrey is a comic genius in any setting, but he does his best work when he can just “let it all out” and be the clown that has made him so popular.
That’s what he did in “Ace Ventura” and that’s what he got to do in “Liar, Liar.”
Carrey’s character in this new film, a caricature of a brown-nosing lawyer who will do anything to get to the top, is absolutely perfect for him. While a typical lawyer in a typical Los Angeles firm wouldn’t act quite Carrey does in this film, he’s so funny that it doesn’t matter.
In the first few minutes of “Liar, Liar,” his character is developed as someone for whom lying has become second nature, and not something even thought about. He does everything from standing up his son to complimenting a hairdo that looks like the effects of electroshock therapy.
But then, the worst happens. At his fifth birthday party, his son wishes that just for a day, his dad won’t lie. And it comes true.
This theme, albeit approached in different ways, is an old one. Everyone from the ancient Greeks to Disney have written or filmed their take on it, but it never gets old. What would happen if someone just couldn’t lie?
In this case, like everything else remotely connected to Jim Carrey, the most outrageous possible things result.
At the time of the misplaced wish, he is representing an adulterous client who wants half of her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s estate. He finds his foolproof plan to present her as “the victim” impossible to execute, as it is chock-full of lies.
Everywhere he goes, he is forced to tell people what he really thinks of them, and when people find out about his affliction, it gets even funnier. But I don’t want to give too much away.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is a Jim Carrey movie with substance, it comes as close as one might expect him to try. As “The Cable Guy” so readily proves, Carrey is made for comic acting, and any departure from that genre is a sin to both him and his audience.
Grade: B+