Review: Fun With Dick and Jane


We needed a break, something light to escape with after the frenetic holidays were ebbing into some pre-New Year's relaxation, and Fun With Dick and Jane fit the bill.

Thankfully short at about 90 minutes, this re-staging of the 1977 film of the same name (starring Jane Fonda and George Segal) was a fairly pointless suburban romp about consumerism, moral equivalency, desperation, and revenge. However, the pointlessness (for us at least) was the point, and Jim Carrey is just downright funny to watch in almost anything.

Not as thought-provoking as The Majestic or The Truman Show, and not as obviously message- driven as Liar Liar, the film puts Carrey in a role where he gets to perform at a somewhat lower key than in many other films. His vocalizations and actions are well-calculated to give us the humor we want without being overdone so much that you think it's a slapstick.

Téa Leoni does an acceptable job as a pretty, one-dimensional suburban housewife whose life is turned upside down by the loss of financial means.

Thinly veiled in the film is a knock at 2000-era corporate greed and a nod to those who were left without work in the wake of the dot com bubble.

We enjoyed the film for what it was. It won't be getting any Oscar nominations, but it had some good laughs and some funny situations quite OK for breaking up the monotony.