Taking it Back
Carrey and Leoni Steal Laughs

At times, everyone is tempted to do the wrong thing. For some, that decision comes after a series of unfortunate events where every bit of luck seems bad and every opportunity turns into a disaster. In this remake of the 1977 comedy of the same name, Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni examine the ultimate upper middle-class catastrophe when Dick Harper (Carrey) finds himself the scapegoat for the collapse of an entire company.

Fun With Dick and Jane
Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) is on the run in the new comedy Fun with Dick and Jane. (Sony, 2005)
Directed by: Dean Parisot
Written by: Judd Apatow and Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni, Alec Baldwin, and Richard Jenkins

Rated PG-13 (for brief language, some sexual humor and occasional humorous drug references.)
Running time: 90 min.

FilmGuru's Rating : 6 out of 10.

In the year 2000, the Harpers appear to have everything. They have good jobs, a wonderful son (who is learning Spanish from the maid), and their suburban home is everything they dreamed. Jane (Leoni) works for a travel agency and Dick has been pushing for a promotion. His hard work has finally paid off. The president (Alec Baldwin) of the company has named Dick the new VP of Communication and asked him to appear on national television to spin the company's latest quarterly projections.

Of course, Dick is just the fall guy. While under fire about the president's divestment of much of the company's stock, Dick watches the company go bust. Suddenly there is no company, and Dick is out of work. Worse, the company's pension fund has been lost -- and with it, Dick's safety net. He returns home to find that Jane has quit her job too. Months of job searching lead to gradual destitution, but the final straw is a foreclosure notice on their house.

So begins a tentative life of crime that does not bode well for the Harpers. The crime spree is a farce, giving both Carrey and Leoni a chance to display their comedic antics in a high-pressure, zany situation. Unfortunately, the story begins to fall flat at that point. To say that Fun with Dick and Jane is predictable is an understatement. There are moments in the story that offer good comedy -- as when Dick battles other executives on the way to a job interview -- but the overall story seems to be lit by unmistakable neon signs.

The film belongs to Jim Carrey. Téa Leoni does a good job keeping up with him, but it's a shame that more isn't done with her character. With her gift for comedy, she's one of the few actresses who is able to hold her own alongside Carrey's over-the-top antics.

The parallels to companies like Enron and Arthur Anderson are hardly by accident. The social commentary is there, but it's hidden by silly situations that wouldn't be plausible outside of a situation comedy. Unfortunately, it's hard to laugh when the film is a constant reminder of how many people were screwed over by the executives who made off with millions.