Back before Jim Carrey went bat$*t crazy and became a painter, he would release blockbuster movies filled with laughs. This one from 1997 was one of them.
The premise behind this movie is something that any of us that have ever had to deal with lawyers can relate to. That is, lawyers are completely full of s**t. They make a living by stretching the truth and excelling at convoluting a situation to the point where justice becomes injustice.
This is Jim's character in "Liar Liar." He plays Fletcher Reede, a successful attorney whose primary focus in life is the advancement of his career at all costs. He spends every day of his life telling half-truths to people, even the people he cares about. He adores his son Max but one day skips his son's birthday party in order to attempt to advance his career. He lies on the phone about why he can't be there and his son of course is very unhappy about this. Max uses his birthday wish while blowing out the candles to "wish that his father couldn't lie for just one day."
The wish immediately comes true and Fletcher finds that it is impossible for him to tell a lie or even a half truth. He also can't ask question that he already knows the answer to and also can not opt to say nothing when he knows the truth or has an honest opinion. This causes a lot of problems when he enters his office as he proceeds to tell everyone what he really thinks of them. In a particularly funny scene he is attempting to write lies, only to discover that he is incapable of this as well. He can't even claim that a pen is a different color than it is.
the pen is BLUE
The biggest problem is that he has a very important court case on this "day of no lies" and he is very aware of the fact that their entire case is built on lies. He tries everything he can to postpone the case but all of his attempts fail even when he goes to the bathroom and beats himself up.
Upon returning to the courtroom the judge simply asks him "are you able to continue?" Seeing as how he is incapable of lying he reluctantly responds "yeeeeeesssss."
That trailer is really low resolution but i think it kind of adds to the ambiance of this film being more than 20 years old.
Overall, this is a feel-good comedy that kind of says a lot about all of us in the end, not just lawyers. How often do we pretend to like people that you don't, give compliments to people that don't deserve them, or simply embellish stories that we tell to others?
This comedy comes highly recommended by me.
