FUN WITH DICK & JANE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: language, theft

Rated:

The story has been told a thousand times. Two successful people meet and marry. Then comes a family, and the wife quits her job to stay home with the kids. Just when they are settling into a normal routine, dad loses his job. That's pretty much the formula of life and the plot of the film... but that's where it ends, and takes on a whole new direction.

Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) is at the top of his game. Recently summoned to the 52nd floor of the global trading company where he works, he just knows an enormous promotion is in his immediate future. He has been asked to visit the bucolic home of CEO Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin) in order to discuss business possibilities for the future. Knowing he is about to be promoted to a vice presidential position in the company, he races home to tell his wife Jane (Téa Leoni), who is forced to deal with self-centered and abusive clients all day at the travel agency, that she can now quit her job, because he will be making more than the two of them combined. Relieved to abandon the corporate world in order to take care of their son Billy (Aaron Michael Drozin), Jane hands in her two weeks notice and undertakes the job of keeping their impressive new house in order.

One of Dick's new jobs as a representative of the company is to handle the question and answer session of recent media interest, since McCallister has recently dumped all of his stock. While Dick assures the inquisitive public that the company has nothing to hide, the CEO's are pulling out and everyone else is shredding documents. Within twenty-four hours the company goes bankrupt and is being investigated for insider trading, leaving the Harpers high and dry financially. Dick's search for a job lasts several months, in which time they are forced to sell almost everything of value they own, and have their lawn repossessed. Rather than lose the house, Dick and Jane resort to extreme measures, becoming high-tech hold-'em-up bandits.

Most films of this genre contain their share of disconcerting material, but this one is better than most. There's no sexual content with the exception of Dick and Jane scheduling a love making session for Saturday, and a few instances of mild innuendo. Turned on by a robbery gone well, the couple make out passionately in the car. A woman observes a man peeing into a cup (for a drug test). There's one f-word and one abuse of Jesus' name, along with other mild abuses of deity and profanities. Most of the violence is of the slapstick variety in which no one is hurt, but a bank robbery leads to an exchange of bullets. Then too, there's the issue of theft without remorse, and while they put their skills to good use in paying back the man responsible for embezzling so much from the company, it's still not right. Anything with Jim Carrey in it is bound to be first funny and second offensive, but this one manages to uphold its moral center better than most (despite the fact that the title characters are nothing more than thieves). 

There's a whiff of Enron on the wind, something that takes a wink-wink beating shortly before the final credits. It's set in 2000, which lends a little bit of fun in mild political undertones. In one scene, Dick and Jane are shown watching President Bush giving a national address. There's also the presence of outspoken conservative actress Angie Harmon in a minor role. It does have genuinely funny moments, whether it's seeing a truck role up and take back the lawn they put down, or the Harpers running through their neighbor's sprinklers covered in soap because they cannot afford to pay their water bill. If you are intent on not taking it too seriously, I think you'll have a lot of Fun With Dick & Jane.