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ME, MYSELF & IRENE Send This Review to a Friend
Jim Carrey is the funniest physical comedian in film today and the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter, with a co-script assist from Mike Cerrone, have given him a made-to-fit vehicle that reaches high points of hilarity and is refreshingly politically incorrect. These are not fellows worried about offending anybody. Numerous gags are outrageously gross, which makes them outrageously funny. Almost inevitably with such material, some of the busily plotted comedy wears thin, but the laughs are more than worth the lulls.
This time Carrey plays Charlie Baileygates, a repressed, ultra-meek Rhode Island state trooper. Just how meek we learn early after his new bride casts an intriguing glance at the African-American dwarf who chauffeurs them home from the wedding. The diminished driver has just accused Charlie of racism and insulting little people and has furiously attacked him. Cut to the delivery room when Charlie's wife gives birth--to three black babies. The neighborhood and his colleagues may talk, but Charlie goes blissfully along and becomes a devoted dad to his boys, who are partial to watching television shows in which the favorite word is motherfucker. Even when his wife runs off with her little guy, Charlie carries on dutifully.
But there's a complication. It turns out Charlie is schizophrenic. Not taking his medicine unleashes the other Charlie, an angry, swearing, take-no-prisoners weirdo who revolts against anyone in his way and does what he pleases. One of the film's most over-the-top gags occurs when he sees a woman nursing on a bench. He also gets even with a neighbor by taking a vengeful dump on his lawn, and the mischievous Farrellys uncork a major sight gag in that connection. Apart from other toilet humor, the use of a sex toy and a chicken stuffed up a butt, there is added humor as Charlie's loyal sons grow up, one obese and the other two powerhouses. What won't they--and don't they--do for daddy! Given Carrey's genius at physical humor, there are slapstick scenes in which both Charlies fight each other.
Carrey is hugely aided by co-star Rene Zellweger, who plays Irene, a woman in trouble whom he must escort under orders to upstate New York. Zellweger is a lovable actress, and naturally, Charlie falls for Irene. Good sport that she is, Zellweger goes along with the ribald humor, which includes a much-discussed dildo flopping around and a seemingly injured cow into which Charlie unloads his gun. Animal rights activists are only one group that may gripe at the irreverent humor. Potential bitching aside, theaters are going to be filled with a load of laughter this summer, courtesy of the writer-directors who scored with "Dumb and Dumber" and "There's Something About Mary." A 20th Century Fox release.
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