DUMB AND DUMBER
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1995 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Lauren Holly. Screenplay: Peter Farrelly, Bennett Yulin and Bobby Farrelly. Director: Peter Farrelly.
1994 at the movies had many stories, but none may be as unlikely as the emergence of Jim Carrey as one of the biggest box office draws in the country. The critically savaged ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE made over $70 million, and THE MASK topped $100 million. I enjoyed both films on their own merits because they were made by directors who had the good sense to get out of the way and let Carrey do what he does best: be a walking cartoon. DUMB AND DUMBER is the kind of movie for which "sophomoric" would be a compliment, but it could have worked with Carrey's unique gifts at center stage. Instead, it's just plain stupid, and about as badly put together a movie as I saw all year.
Carrey plays Lloyd Christmas, an idiotic limo driver who becomes infatuated with a woman named Mary (Lauren Holly) he takes to the airport one day. When he sees Mary leave a briefcase at the terminal, Lloyd decides that he must return it to her personally, even if it means driving from Providence, Rhode Island to Aspen, Colorado to do it. He enlists the aid of best friend Harry Dunn (Jeff Daniels), a dog groomer nearly as stupid as Lloyd, and together they head west in Harry's customized sheepdog van. What neither one knows is that the briefcase contains a ransom drop, and that the kidnappers are tailing them to get the money back.
We've all seen comedies where every funny moment was already in the previews, but DUMB AND DUMBER falls into an entirely new category. Not only is the preview funnier than the movie, but it contains different takes of the same scene than ended up in the final product, and in every case the take that was used in the preview was funnier. Among these are a scene where Carrey flips out an open jetway onto the tarmac, and one where Carrey and Daniels try to recall Mary's last name by checking the briefcase. In another scene, where Carrey rear-ends another car with his limo and ends up struggling with the air bag, the shot is chopped short before the air bag is even fully inflated. It looks like director Peter Farrelly turned all his raw footage over to a trailer production company, then promptly proved that he should have given them the final cut on his movie. Farrelly, quite simply put, does not appear to have the slightest clue about comic timing.
Jim Carrey knows plenty about comic timing, but he is really adrift here, particularly in the first hour. I have this feeling that somewhere on a cutting room floor is a very funny performance, but it's not on the screen in DUMB AND DUMBER. There are a few moments when Carrey gets to show off his talents, particularly an extended fantasy sequence which includes an exaggerated kung fu battle in a restaurant, but director Farrelly (working from a script co-written with brother Bobby and Bennett Yellin) appears determined not to let DUMB AND DUMBER become a Jim Carrey showcase. He wants a buddy picture, and it doesn't work because the buddy is played by Jeff Daniels. And while Daniels is a solid if unspectacular dramatic actor, he is way out of is element here. You've got to respect him for trying a part so far from his image, but only for brief flashes is he a convincing moron.
Once the twosome gets to Aspen, there are more laughs by far. The spectacle of Carrey and Daniels in gloriously hideous tuxedos, bright orange and powder blue respectively, is enough to prompt a laugh, and a hilariously gross scene finds Daniels suffering the effects of a massive dose of laxative. But for the majority of its running time, DUMB AND DUMBER cranks out gags so predictable I was minutes ahead of the punch lines. To be fair, I don't think I'm in the target audience for DUMB AND DUMBER; the fifty or so middle-schoolers at my showing laughed loud and often. At that age, a cop drinking a beer bottle full of urine is about as hilarious as it gets.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 urine jokes: 3.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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