FUN WITH DICK AND JANE

US, 2005, 95 minutes, Colour.
Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins, Ralph Nader.
Directed by Dean Parisot.

Perhaps some readers used the Fun with Dick and Jane books as texts for learning how to read. The credits of this comedy, use the books’ illustrations style to introduce the father, Dick, the mother, Jane, their young son and the family dog. This is a typical family unit, comfortable, happy and, as far as the future is concerned, prosperous.

How wrong they are!

The present screenplay is based on one written for the 1976 film with George Segal and Jane Fonda. As I look at notes I made for the review at that time, I am surprised just how apt they are for this 2005 movie. Have things not improved over thirty years? 1976 was the immediate post-Watergate era and the aftermath of the resignation of President Nixon. Recession mixed with corporate fraud (as with vice-president Agnew) made headlines then. This time, we see President Bush making speeches on prosperity. The film finishes with satiric comments on Enron and other companies whose disgraced executives are now in court.

It is best to point out that the theme of Fun with Dick and Jane is unemployment amongst the middle classes and how they cope and fail to cope with the consequences. This is a particularly American problem. Audiences in Africa and parts of Asia may not be so interested in Dick and Jane and their plight. They have far more important and deeper problems to deal with.

However, for those of us in western cultures, we know that retrenchment, restructuring and downsizing are a significant part of our experience. My past notes refer to the ‘nouveau poor’.

The trouble is that Dick is an enthusiastic and effective worker. It is just that he has been chosen as the fall-guy for corporate crooks to get away with huge profits as their company goes bankrupt – and he is trapped on a typical TV finance interview trying to put on a brave face while being shocked at discovering what has happened. He has just persuaded Jane to give up her travel agent job to spend more time with their son.

The black comedy shows them trying to salvage their dignity and their possessions. Then it shows Dick’s failed attempts to find a job. Finally, they are so desperate that Dick and Jane set out on a series of armed robberies to make ends meet and regain their status.

Some of these episodes – holding moral judgment in abeyance until we see how they emerge from these activities – are quite funny, especially when Dick is arrested and deported with Mexican illegals and when Dick’s robberies go wrong and he meets a friend and helps an old lady with her groceries to her car.

Since Jim Carrey is the star, we can expect some broad comedy and some of his mugging and impersonations - a little of which can go a long way. He is matched very well by Tea Leoni as Jane.

Alec Baldwin is the creepy criminal executive who offers smooth rationalisations and jocose television answers. Richard Jenkins is very good as the vice president of the company who finally collaborates with Dick and Jane to rectify the situation and move the goings-on to a moral high ground – a nice trick to get back the ill-gotten gains and try to see justice done.

Fun with Dick and Jane is not a comedy masterpiece. Rather, it is a piece of popular entertainment that reaches the widest audience (in American, European and G8 societies) and by satire and funny situations, not realism, remind us that there are greedy exploiters who manipulate world finances and who have no scruples in easily permitting the family in the street to be their victims.

1.Entertaining, comedy, satire – serous tones, social tones?

2.The update of the 1970s film, the changed economic situations and political situations in the US from then till now?

3.The political context of the film, the television appearances of President Bush, the speeches about prosperity, the American dream?

4.The background of corrupt corporations, Enron and its failure (and the final credits and jokes concerning Enron)? Jack and Frank and the Globodyne company, the schemes, the bankruptcy, the shares falling (and the presentation of the television program and Dick’s appearance on it, the statistics, the charts, the collapse)?

5.Different audience attitudes towards the film – depending on age, experience, salaries, unemployment, social status? Impact for American audiences? Audiences outside the United States?

6.The title, the title for the book helping children to learn to read? The credits and the introduction to Dick, Jane, their son, the dog? The captions straight out of the reader? The humorous way of introducing the characters?

7.Jim Carrey and his screen presence and style? As Dick? The blend of the serious and the comic? The touches of his mugging, impersonations, pratfalls? Tea Leonie and her complementing his style? Matching him in the comedy stakes?

8.The portrait of Dick, age, experience, job, family, family life, relationship with Jane, with his son? The maid? The putting down of the new lawn? The digging of the pool? The neighbour with the Mercedes? The jokes? At the office, his rivals? The nature of his work, going to the fifty-first floor? The bizarre meeting with Frank? Going to Jack’s house, the eggs, the promotion, vice president, going on the show? Arriving at the studio, his being embarrassed on air, the reality of Globodyne’s failure? His return, the office fights? The discussions with Ralph Nader on television? Jack’s escape and watching it on TV?

9.Jane, at work, the travel consultant and the complaints? The harassing nature of her job? Her life at home, the domestic work, giving up her job?

10.Their son, his age, the maid, his speaking Spanish – and this backfiring when Dick was arrested with all the illegals?

11.Dick as jobless, the range of phone interviews, going to the interview, meeting his friend from the company, the devices to keep everyone out, his being taken into the office, the group mocking him, taking the photo? His trying to get a job, going to the supermarket, welcoming people into the supermarket, his failing? Jane and her being an instructor at the gym – and the neighbours and her friends there? Her pretending about the digging up of the lawn? Dick and the maid giving him some help, trying to get on the truck to get a job, being punched? Playing cards? The illegals, his being rounded up, interrogated by the police, his broken jaw giving a bad accent? Phoning his son? Having to get back over into the United States, Jane coming with the car? In the meantime, experiment gone wrong with the Botox?

12.Their having to sell everything, sitting in the hole, the message about the repossessing of the house?

13.Dick and his anger, trying out the robberies, the squirt gun? Jane watching, bemused and amused in the car? Meeting his friend, helping the old lady with the groceries, trying to do robberies, getting the muffins and the coffee? The final success?

14.Robbing the banks, the disguise, his going into the vault, the other robbers arriving, their being arrested and his escaping? Their coming to their senses? Trying to decide what to do?

15.Frank and his drinking, the prospect of his going to jail for a short time, getting a payoff? Dick going to the bar, performing, finding Frank?

16.The plan, the exchange of the document, the visualising it with Jane, losing the page, Jack’s arrival, the encounter with Dick, his mocking him? The tactics, Frank and the car and the crash, getting the woman out of the office, the standover tactics to get the signature, getting the cheque out of Jack?

17.Jack, his character, selfish, escaping with the helicopter, on TV, shooting? His plan to get the money into the Cayman Islands? His comeuppance, on TV, Dick prompting him, giving him the text? All his money given to the fund?

18.The collage of all the people – first of all down and out, then helped by the fund?

19.The blend of comedy, the serious, jokes, pratfalls, commentary songs? How effective a way of commenting on social situations for the wide audience?