Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane (Director: Dean Parisot)














Parisot has done a lot of TV, like "Northern Exposure," "ER," and "Monk." His first big film was 1998's Home Fries, but Parisot's most recognizable work came the next year, the great Galaxy Quest. This is our final remake of the year. This comes from the 1977 Jane Fonda/George Segal film, which was based on a Gerald Gaiser novel. But neither he nor any of the original's writers are credited here; really, the only thing that is the same is the basic storyline. This screenplay comes courtesy of Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin) and Nicholas Stoller ("Undeclared") from a story they wrote with Peter Tolan (Guess Who, Just Like Heaven)

Once comics become legit, their comedies change. Take Jim Carrey, who started off with "In Living Color" and became a huge star with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Dumb & Dumber. Carrey was always unafraid to push his characters to the limit; you had no idea what kind of motor the guy had to be able to keep up the intensity. With this, came negative reviews and he wasn't a critical darling. Just a clown. Liar, Liar (his last good comedy) was assumed to be as close Carrey could get to being more than just that. When he did The Truman Show in 1998, Carrey suddenly got pushed into that other realm--he was a guy who really could act. Therefore, if he did comedies again, he could never go back into Ace Ventura territory. With it came comedies that toned Carrey down. Even Bruce Almighty wasn't as manic as those earlier comedies were. Maybe, now in his forties, Carrey himself can't get to that level anymore.

Fun with Dick and Jane has been updated to be a riff on the Enron age. Dick Harper (Carrey) is a fast-moving would-be executive in the Globodyne Corporation, his wife Jane (Tea Leoni) also a hard-working mom. They live a pretty good life, they've got a nice house and Dick drives a Beamer, but they aren't filthy rich. One day, the powers that be (Richard Jenkins and Alec Baldwin) at Globodyne hand Dick a VP of Communications gig that will set the Harpers up. Jane quits her job, not knowing her husband has been given the role of fall guy for Globodyne as a stock scandal hits. Both out of work, the Harpers try to do everything in their power to get jobs, but nothing works out, and a life of crime becomes the next option.

What I felt like during this comedy, since I laughed about two times during its duration, was that there were some ideas that could have really gone further and been turned memorable. When you have a screenwriter like Apatow, who has shown his ability to develop comic gold, and a director like Parisot, whose Galaxy Quest is one of the funniest movies in the last 10 years, and Carrey, one of the top comedians in our era, you would think this would be a nutball farce. As it is, Tea Leoni pretty much steals most of this. Unfortunately, it's not much to steal. Just for example, they have a kid who has obviously been raised by the Hispanic housekeeper, since he speaks fluent Spanish, wants to watch Telemundo, and is happy to get the TV back (after it had to be sold) so that he can watch soccer. These are pretty nice touches, and could have had more to say about hard-working parents, with a little more exploration and focus. As is, they are throwaway gags that are likely to just go over the heads of most viewers. And this goes for a lot of the subjects and themes in the movie.

It's really an incomplete work. This wasn't ready to show.