Movie Suggestion - Liar Liar

I suggest that we should watch “Liar Liar” starring Jim Carrey. I have not watched the movie myself but I personally love Jim Carrey for one reason. He is HILARIOUS! But the first thing that attracted me to this movie was the title itself. Among the many plays that we have read, more than half of the plays had some if not many aspects of lies/cheat/deceptions/perjury in them. Some of the plots were even built on lies after lies which caused conflicts and misunderstanding among the characters.

In this movie, the main character Fletcher (Jim Carrey) is a lawyer but he has a habit of giving precedence to his job, breaking promises to his son and his ex-wife Audrey, and then lying about the reasons. Fletcher's compulsive lying has also built him a reputation as one of the best defense lawyers in the state of California as he is climbing the ladder in the firm for which he works.

The most obvious play that could relate to this movie is of course, The Broken Jug. Both the main characters were representatives of the legal field. Their duty was to uphold justice but for different reasons they tell lies to secure their statuses. The Misanthrope also has a tiny aspect of lie when Celimene cheated on Alceste by flirting around behind his back. The Beaver Coat reveals Mrs. Wolff deceptive character towards the people around her by stealing and trying to put the blame on others. The plots were driven by lies which indirectly influenced their respective resolutions.

What if they were all unable to lie? In this movie, Fletcher one day realizes that he is unable to lie, mislead, or even withhold a true answer, which put his career and family relationship at risk. It would be interesting to imagine or discuss how the plots and endings of the plays that we studied would be different if the characters were unable to lie.

Movie Suggestion: Liar Liar

When it comes to comedy, not many do it better than Jim Carrey. Dumb and Dumber, The Mask, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc are all good examples, but my favorite is Liar Liar. Liar Liar tells the story of a crooked lawyer who lies his way out of everything and never keeps his promises. This lawyer also has a son and ex wife. The story focuses on a wish the son makes at his birthday party, the wish for his dad not to be able to tell lies for one day. As the wish unfolds the dad gets into more and more awkward and painfully funny situations. 

The reason I chose this movie because it ties in with Bergson's Laughter. Bergson says that in order for something to be funny it must be inelastic and rigid. One way Liar Liar is inelastic and rigid is by Jim Carrey not being able to tell lies. There is no evading awkward questions or annoying people. Instead whatever is the truth comes tumbling out Carrey's mouth and causes him to get into so much trouble.
Another way Liar Liar is similar to Bergson is that, to Bergson, laughter is a corrective force. We laugh at things that don't correct themselves or fail to see the obvious pot hole and fall right into it. "Laughter must be something of thinking, a sort of SOCIAL GESTURE. By the fear which it inspires, it restrains eccentricity keeps constantly awake and in mutual contact certain activities of a secondary order which might retire into their shell and go to sleep…" (Laughter, p.9a) So in this movie the laughter is the corrective force for Jim Carrey's inability to lie as well as the corrective force for his overactive lying. Liar Liar is also hilariously and painfully funny at some points and should well be called Bergson's Laughter on screen. If it isn't picked for the movie, you should take the time out of your schedule to watch this fantastic movie.