Dick und Jane (Fun with Dick and Jane)
U.S.A. 2005

Opening 5 Jan 2006

Directed by: Dean Parisot
Writing credits: Judd Apatow, Nicholas Stoller
Principal actors: Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins

Director Dean Parisot has managed to make the whole more than the sum of its parts in this Bonnie and Clyde comedy. The plot is mostly unoriginal and Jim Carrey plays his usual ridiculous role, but nevertheless, Fun with Dick and Jane has several clever and funny surprises.

Set in 2000 and inspired by corporate scandals such as the Enron fiasco, the story revolves around the Harper family’s desperation to cling to their upper-middle class lifestyle (and then to any semblance of a lifestyle at all) after Dick (Carrey) loses his job. After earnestly exhausting even the most creative methods of money-making including working as a Wal-Mart greeter and a day laborer among illegal Mexican immigrants, Dick turns to a life of crime. At first his wife Jane (Téa Leoni) looks on with passive amusement, but she soon discovers that she has a natural aptitude for thievery. The pair steals their way back into their American dream, but because they really are goody-two-shoes at heart, they must find a way to right their wrongs. But how?

In addition to the chemistry between Leoni and Carrey, the supporting cast adds more than its fair share of laughs with impeccable comedic timing: Alec Baldwin as the corrupt CEO (i.e. the bad guy), Richard Jenkins as his alcoholic financial wizard, Gloria Garayua as the Harper’s maid, and Jacob Davich as the Harper’s son, who even with a very minor role provides one of the film’s funniest moments simply by answering the phone. While the film is certainly not Oscar material (with the possible exception of costume design by Julie Weiss), it is 90 minutes of laugh-out-loud entertainment, complete with a message about corporate greed. (Alyssa Cirelli)