Movie Meme, Day 16: A Guilty Pleasure Movie

I think I’ve said it before, I don’t believe in guilty pleasure – if it’s pleasure why be guilty. I really can’t think of a film I’m honestly embarrassed to like (hello, I’m blogging aren’t I), but I’ll bite the bullet. I thought of focusing on a film that was bad – a film I recognised as bad – but one I’d sit down and watch nonetheless. I was coming up with nothing, but then I settled on one. It’s not necessarily bad (B/B- territory, for me) – Liar, Liar. It’s a good comedic outing from Jim Carey, a film that’s liked but not particularly respected and one that I appreciate unequivocally.

       

I’m a moderate Jim Carey fan. Sometimes he’s excellent (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show) and generally on point with general comedy (Ace Ventura, The Mask, Lemony Snicket),. Of his nineties’ films Liar, Liar charms me the most. Carey plays the eponymous liar of the title. He is Fletcher Reed – an unreliable father as well as a lawyer, though due to a birthday wish of his son he must reluctantly mend his ways. The very conceit of the film depends on a suspension of belief that’s reasonably ridiculous in some ways. I’m not even sure that I buy it completely, sometimes. Nonetheless, there’s something about Liar, Liar that makes it difficult for me to resist it.

On a purely comedic level it might not even be Carey’s best work, but when all the good things about Liar, Liar coalesce it’s hard to fault it – too harshly. Maura Tierney (always good in E.R.) plays well alongside Carey as his ex-wife and Justin Cooper plays well as his son. However, when I think of supporting comedic players in Liar, Liar (and in Carey films in general) I rarely get past Jennifer Tilly’s hilarious stint as a cantankerous client of Fletcher. There is a certain scene where she and Carey face off in court that’s probably the film’s highpoint for me. It never fails to get me laughing every time.

I suppose as far as pleasure goes there’s nothing guilty about Liar, Liar. But I figured by hook or crook I’d get it in on the MEME.