As the month of July approaches and the temperature
rises above average, low-income people like myself become very
forgiving at the movies. That's because two hours of air conditioning
is worth at least half the matinee admission price. A couple of
good laughs and you've broken even.
In spite of myself, I laughed out loud many times during "Me, Myself and Irene". There were some good gags and Jim Carrey was highly skillful in their delivery. As with "Something About Mary", the Farrelly brothers really push the envelope for body function humor. You shouldn't laugh, but you will.
Which is not to say that this film was a comedic masterpiece. Instead of augmenting the comic tension, the "plot" became so much dead weight, something you have to sit and endure between the funny bits, which got to be a bit too widely scattered, later on in the movie. Is it too much to ask for a lowbrow comedy to have sharp writing? I guess not every comedy can be the next "Lady Killers" or "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", but it wouldn't kill them to try!
Carrey was a no-brainer choice for the lead. In spite of the movie's shortcomings, he really shines, and after a couple of ventures into serious dramatic acting, it's nice to see him return to 100% goofiness. His "door mat" persona and his "loose cannon" alternate were both very funny in the beginning. Some of the potential was squandered later on as the film ran out of ideas and the character switches became more tedious.
On the plus side, I enjoyed the Rhode Island scenery (even if there was a conspicuous absence of Rhode Island dialect). Renée Zellweger was very cute. There were some good small parts by Robert Forster (Jackie Brown) and Chris Cooper (Lone Star, American Beauty). And you can always count on the Farrelly brothers to throw in some unusual characters. In this pic you get Carrey's loud, mouthy, genius IQ black triplet sons (Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee and Jerod Mixon), and a soft-spoken psychopathic albino tag-along (Michael Bowman).
Overall, I have mixed reactions to this movie. The general critical consensus seems to be that this film was a disappointment after the Farrelly brothers' previous gems, and yet I laughed much more often during "Me, Myself and Irene" than I ever did in "Something About Mary". That's the Jim Carrey difference.
Thanks in no small part to his antics, I would have to rate this film as a moderate success. There's plenty to not like in this movie, but what can I say? Laughs don't lie, and I chuckled out loud, a lot. Make sure to leave any high dramatic expectations at the door, and get ready to see Jim Carrey go where no man on film has ever gone before (pun intended).