Is Fun with Dick and Jane really 15 years old already? Where have you been Jim Carrey? I miss you.
Coming back to this movie was like visiting an old friend. Childhood memories returned. Essentially, I was a ball of warm and fuzzy feelings. Rewatching it was just as satisfying as I had hoped it would be. A great 2 hours spent with the typical Hollywood model that we all know and love. And maybe something us screenwriters should revisit every now and then.
I mean, millions upon millions have been made with the story structure you see featured in Fun with Dick and Jane.
Let’s not dive into the technical stuff right away. I’ll leave that for the end after we get through the general idea of the film and the general audience viewers have figured out how well this movie has withstood the test of time.
First off, Netflix is doing a great job in grabbing the popular classics. There was a moment there when I thought all of their money was going into making original content and that they would have nothing left to buy new movies and series. Let alone having movies in general. Everything seems to be a series nowadays. What happened to enjoying a 2 hour movie and then being done with it?
Fun with Dick and Jane is cute in the way that family dramas are nowadays. We have the good guy getting stuck in a sticky situation with no way out. The bad guy is so bad that there’s nothing to redeem him. Then the good guy finds a way to survive, so in the end, good wins out and he discovers a way to save the day. Jim Carrey’s version just adds in some great comedy with his superb acting skills. Carey is the physical actor of our lifetimes. I’ve seen a few try to reach him but he’s still holding strong to that first place.
Okay… being fully transparent, the age is apparent the second you hear the score, experience the timing, and pay attention to the cinematography. But if you ignore some of those things, you might be surprised at how old the movie is. I want to say that Netflix did touch up the film a little because it looked amazing on my TV.
I’m grasping for original things to say about the film. Is it really that mainstream? Or is my head just tired of writing reviews? Maybe it goes to show that my rating is so middle ground that I don’t have anything to point out. Where the movie slowed, Jim Carrey saved the day. The ending was believable and a little obvious but I already warned you that this is a family drama? It’s cute in a way that MR. and Mrs. Smith was. It’s all about that power couple team that works together.
And it’s so easy to call out the plot changes while watching. You have the inciting incident when Dick takes the promotion. There’s the change to act two when he goes on the TV and his whole world falls apart. The lowest moment in the middle of act 2 before the hopeful ending. But it isn’t that easy as the good guy hits a few bumps before we know how it all ends.
What I really love is how seamlessly the writers dropped you into the world of Fun with Dick and Jane. You know who the people are, how they feel about their world, and what their wants are in seconds. Take the moment with Dick and his neighbor. Do you see the wants spilling out of his skin? It's so transparent but also a great delivery.
And with that I’ve figured out the divide between the movies of that day and age and nowadays. The formula was so apparent then that you never had to think about what you were watching. It’s all feel good on a Saturday afternoon. Nowadays the movies take a little more thought. Fine…. Maybe that’s not really the case. Maybe it’s really my tastes that have changed. I don’t watch the mainstream movies like I used. Or maybe I just remember watching Fun with Dick and Jane on a Saturday afternoon that my thoughts are tainted.
Happy Watching
Love Kait