CINEMA-USA: ‘Liar Liar’ Strikes a Familiar Chord

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Apr 22 1997 (IPS) - You can’t help wondering at the state of the nation and its politicians when the most popular film on the screens across the United States today is about a lawyer who is forced to stop lying!

Comedian Jim Carrey’s new movie, ‘Liar Liar’ (from Imagine/Universal), has been the top-rated film in the country since its debut last month, and it’s easy to see why: it provides an hilarious look at what happens when a lawyer in the modern world cannot avoid telling the truth.

That predicament hits Fletcher Reede (played by Carrey) because, in one of the film’s many sappy moments, his son makes a birthday wish that, for 24-hours, his absent father wouldn’t tell any more lies. The wish comes true just when Reede is about to begin a divorce case where some heavy juggling with the facts is needed.

Carrey, arguably Hollywood’s most extravagant ‘over-actor’, makes the most of a character who struggles valiantly to lie even as the truth blurts from his mouth. He flaps his lips, he contorts his body, he mumbles gibberish but still only the truth emrges from his mouth.

The movie, after a slow beginning, thus takes on a genuinely amusing premise: that we would miss the lies, big and little, that people tell to get through the day if they magically disappeared. Carrey as Reede is a picture of humiliation when his boss (Amanda Donohue) asks him how he enjoyed a sexual encounter, and he blurts out, “I’ve had better.’

Reede’s customary tact disappears when an overweight colleague asks him, “What’s up, Fletcher?” and he can only respond, “Your cholesterol!” Words fail to describe the embarrassed expression on Carrey’s face when Reede leaves an elevator full of people gagging at a strange smell, only to see him plaintively scream “It was me!”

As directed by Tom Shadyac, himself a former comedian, ‘Liar Liar’ has a fast-paced middle section composed of many such moments so the film takes off with a momentum that manages to overcome the weaknesses and gaps in the screenplay.

The distraught Fletcher even wins his court case – after a brilliantly self-destructive performance in which he objects to his own legal arguments – although he loses, over the course of his day, his car, his secretary, his job and he ends up in jail.

‘Liar, Liar,’ however, loses its drive at the end, when Fletcher Reede decides the one thing he cannot lose is his son – and he struggles valiantly to win back his family from a well-meaning bore (Cary Elwes) who offers to provide a stable family life. Suddenly Carrey’s lies take a back seat to Carrey’s caring father act which, ironically, comes off as shallow and insincere.

If the sentimental coda, with its pro-family message, seems a little forced, though, there may be a good reason: Carrey’s last film, ‘The Cable Guy,’ flopped badly last year when, according to most critics, it presented too many mean-spirited jokes and not enough humanity.

‘Liar Liar’ takes the other route, deflating its comedy at the end to present a kinder, gentler Jim Carrey. Given the film’s profits so far – it has already earned more than 100 million dollars in U.S. cinemas – it is clear that, in Hollywood at least, some lies are worth telling.