Liar Liar (1997)

reviewed by
Michael Yagnow


                                    LIAR LIAR
               A film review by Michael Yagnow
                Copyright 1997 Michael Yagnow

The last time Jim Carrey popped up on the big screen was is THE CABLE GUY, a total waste of time. After THE MASK, DUNB & DUMBER, THE CABLE GUY, and the same Ace Ventura movie made twice, I (along with most of America over ten years old) was ready to give up on the goofy actor. I must say, though, LIAR, LIAR really surprised me. It actually had a point, a message! The movie is about Fletcher Reid, a lawyer, father, and pathological liar. After Fletcher (played by Carrey) misses his son, Max's, birthday party, Max makes a wish that his father can't tell a lie for one day. The next shot is of a clock: 8:15. The camera moves to Fletcher in bed with a woman to his left. When asked how his recent sexual experience was, he answers: "I've had better." So begins the plot: Fletcher Reid can't lie for twenty-four hours. So how can he win his case for bimbo/adultress Virginia Cole (Jennifer Tilly) when the only way to do it is to lie? How can he stop this curse before he goes to court? LIAR, LIAR unfolds into a series of comic and, suprisingly, heartwarming scenes with Fletcher, his son, his wife, his wife's boyfriend, and Virginia Cole. The movie makes us face the truth that we tell hundreds of little white lies every day. What if we couldn't? LIAR, LIAR is definitely Jim Carrey's best to date. Though it is not one of my favorite movies, it is definitely worth seeing.

Rating: *** out of a possible **** MPAA: PG-13 for profanity, sexual humor, and some mild violence


The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews