Film Review: Me, Myself & Irene (2000)

12 months ago

(source: tmdb.org

Bad things can happen to good people, and one of the examples can be provided by protagonist of Me, Myself & Irene, 2000 black comedy directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly. Charlie Baileygates (played by Jim Carrey) is meek Rhode Island state trooper who has been taken advantage of by people around him. That included his wife Layla (played by Traylor Howard) who left him for black dwarf limo driver Shonté Jackson (played by Tony Cox). Charlie was left to take care of their three sons – Jamal (played by Anthony Anderson), Lee Harvey (played by Mongo Brownlee) and Shonté Jr. (played by Jerod Mixon) – who all happened to be black. Charlie did his job as a parent, but pent up frustrations eventually led to him developing mean and violent alternate personality called “Hank”. Charlie is able to take his condition under control if he drinks medicine every six hours. One day Colonel Partington (played by Robert Forster), his superior, gives him seemingly routine task of extraditing Irene P. Waters (played by Renée Zellwegger) to New York to face minor criminal charges. Irene, who happens to be young and beautiful woman, used to work in a golf club whose owners are concerned that she might testify over their organised crime activities. So, with a help of corrupt federal agent, they try to kill Irene. “Hank”, who took over Charlie’s identity, saves them and duo begins to hide. After a while both Charlie and “Hank” realise that they fell in love with Irene.

Critics didn’t like Me, Myself & Irene and the most common complaint was that Farrelly Brothers didn’t manage to reach comedy standards they had set with There’s Something About Mary. Like in most of their films, Farrellys had their humour based on various bodily fluids and references to bizarre sex acts. What made critics mad this time, however, was Farrellys’ openly challenging limits of “political correctness”. Negative reactions, like those of National Association of Mental Illness, which complained about inaccurate portrayal of dissociative identity disorder, didn’t hurt the film and it had more than decent results at the box office. This could be explained with Me, Myself & Irene being more than satisfying experience for audience already accustomed to Farrellys’ taste in humour. Most of the gags are quite funny and some of the most revolting scenes are accompanied by narration in style of Wild Kingdom. Two hours of running time pass relatively quickly and somewhere beneath the series of jokes you can even glimpse serious story about conformism in modern world. But the film’s biggest asset is Jim Carrey, one of Hollywood’s grandest comedians, who took the opportunity to deliver another strong performance in double role. The rest of the cast isn’t that impressive, with exception of Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee and Jerod Mixon who play Charlie’s sons. Renée Zellwegger, despite being engaged to Carrey during the production, lacks chemistry with the actor. Farrellys, on the other hand, made sure to have various cameos in the cast, which include tennis player Anna Kournikova and direct-to-video erotic thriller star Shannon Wirry. Me, Myself & Irene isn’t particularly clever nor important film, but it could be recommended to audience that doesn’t require high standards of comedy.

RATING: 5/10 (++)