Title: Liar Liar
Writer: Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur
Director: Tom Shadyac
Year: 1997
Actors: Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reede, Maura Tierney as Audrey Reede, Justin Cooper as Max Reede
Story: Liar Liar is a hilarious comedy about an attorney and a father who is struggling to be a great father to his child from a divorce due to being a workaholic. Part of his job is to win cases by telling one or two lies here and there and part of his character is to never tell people the truth when asked of him.
Plot: The movie starts out with Fletcher (Carey) winning another case and rushing to get to his son on time because he is either always late or doesn’t show at all. His son Max (Cooper) loves his dad and just wants to spend time with him and or him to stop telling lies. Carey’s fiancé has moved on with her life and met someone’s who adores her son in which Carey doesn’t really like. The fiancé is caring and really loves his new family that Carey left behind due to work.
When Carey lands a new case he is eager to win so that he can become partner but he has to lie in order to win. He impresses his bosses by even being able to get the client to choose their firm and their plan worked in which they didn’t expect he was as god of attorney as others thought. Right before it’s time for Carey to go to trial he missing his son’s birthday party due to sexual intercourse with one of the partners and Max (Cooper) makes a wish that his father doesn’t tell a lie for an entire day.
At this time Carey is telling everyone the truth in which comes off very mean and hurting everyone’s feelings. He also had to meet with the head attorney for the firm to impress him to become partner but because he can’t lie he goes off to talk about everyone in the meeting. His truthfulness was well liked by everyone and he was in the running to becoming partner. During this time his fiancé has been asked to get married and move out of state, Carey promises that he would not miss another day with his son. While in court he assumed he would win the case and it would be over in time to meet his son. However, he could not lie to the case was postponed only for him to think of a true fact and law that supports his client and he wins the case. It is now too late and his son and ex-wife are already on a plane.
In conclusion Carey went to stop his family from leaving and he realizes that telling lies doesn’t get him anywhere and he really loves his son and his family. They all get back together and are happy with telling the truth.
The impact of the sound of this film is what makes this movie because throughout majority of the movie Carey was struggling with whether or not to tell the truth. The sounds that he replaces his words with makes this film hilarious. The music scoring “what plays in the background of a scene while action takes place” is also great in this film. Every time Carey is late and forced to meet his son on time the music made it more interesting and hilarious because it was fast indicating he was in a hurry and anxious.
The sound in this film definitely places this film in the comedy genre because Carey makes sounds and faces with everything he says in this movie. In the scene where he realizes his client was under age he has sound and funny gestures that made this one of the funniest scenes in this movie to me. Carey was able to get action and sound from the entire court room because he always told a joke unintentionally the entire time while confusing everyone because they had no clue why he wasn’t playing the good attorney that he was known for.
The clip when they first got to court was a funny scene as well. Not having any dialogue come out while Carey was trying to tell the truth which also played a huge part in this film. Throughout the movie Carey has scenes where he struggled with lying and made all kinds of funny and weird noises that threw the other actors off. In turn making them have the funniest looks on their faces giving the audiences a sense of exactly what they are thinking without saying it. In the end this film probably would have been more in the romantic comedy genre or the drama genre with all the extra sound effects Carey displayed through the film as well as him not making any sound at all. This aspect of this film is what made the film and without I don’t think I would have watched it. This film is a great use of dialogue, sound and music scoring and I loved it and couldn’t stop laughing.
Resources:
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.
Jim Carrey: Ace Attorney. YouTube. Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDnqr_WZWF4
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