STN Entertainment

'LiarLiar'

F

Rated PG-13

Rated R

could be called a sleazeball who
gets dragged kicking and scream-
ing into growing a conscience.
Tom Shadyac, who directed
LiarLiar, gained attention for
last year's The Nutty Professor
and Carrey's 1993 hit Ace Ven-
tura: Pet Detective. The film also
stars Maura Tierney (from TV's
"News Radio"), Swoosie Kurtz
and Jennifer Tilly.

essica Savitch, meet Smilla
Jaspersen. You two have a
lot in common. Both fiercely
intelligent, both full of se-
crets, both leading troubled, con-
flicted lives. Although one of you
has lived and died and the oth-
er has never existed beyond the
printed page, your most impor-
tant shared link is that both of
you were ill served by the movie
versions of your lives.
If the reader wishes to learn
more about the movie that be-
gan as the life story of Jessica
Savitch and ended up as Up
Close and Personal, read John
Dunne's book Monster. The
monster is the Hollywood ma-
chine that takes a fully realized
characterization of a fascinating
woman and reduces that char-
acterization to cliche. The mon-
ster has certainly done damage
to Smilla Jaspersen, one of the
most interesting female charac-
ters to come along in recent con-
temporary literature.
In Peter Hoeg's 1993 novel
Smilla's Sense of Snow, we are

j

PHOTO RY MR INOA SI IEGOROON

letcher Reid cannot tell the
truth.
Professionally, this has
done marvelous things for
him — he has an impeccable
track record as a manipulative,
ambulance-chasing lawyer
whose clients help him stretch
the truth for big bucks.

'Smilla's Sense Of Snow'

Lynne Avadenka is a Huntington
Woods artist.

Jim Carrey plays a habitually lying lawyer in

introduced to Smilla, daughter American doctor, instead of a
of an Inuit mother and a Dan- rich Danish doctor who repre-
ish father. Smilla's mother sur- sents the part of Danish culture
vives as a hunter and is lost in Smilla abhors, thereby remov-
the icy waters of Greenland ing an important clue to Smil-
when Smilla is 6 years old. Smil- la's personality.
la comes to live with her father,
The story of Smilla is mystery
a doctor, in the city of
and suspense, romance,
Copenhagen.
love for a little boy and a
MOVIES
Smilla is trapped be-
fierce search for the
tween the two very differ-
truth. It is Smilla's sense of
ent worlds of her parents, and it snow that tells her that an acci-
is this sense of dislocation that dental death is no accident and
makes her character so fasci- her training as an expert in this
nating. She is the exiled insid- field that leads her on a journey
er, the dispassionate observer, of danger, political intrigue and
the one who is always on the finally revelation.
outside, looking in. We learn
But the movie flattens every-
about the very distinct cultures thing to the simplest of narra-
of her parents and how this tives. While much of the
shapes her life.
dialogue is directly from the nov-
We get very little of the rich- el, lifted out of context it loses
ness of her character in the film its strength and sounds hollow.
version of Smilla's Sense of
The movie is, however, beau-
Snow. The film, directed by Bille tiful to look at. Blue dominates
August (Pelle the Conquerer), the screen, whether it is the
stars Julia Ormond (Sabrina) translucent blue of the glacial
as Smilla, Gabriel Byrne (The ice or the inky blue of Copen-
Usual Suspects) and Richard hagen at night.
Harris (The Field).
See the movie, but enjoy the
In the novel, we learn why book first.
she keeps her emotions so tight-
0
ly held inside. In the movie, she
is simply selfish and irritable.
The film makes her father an
— Lynne Avadenka

.0'

LiarLiar.

Personally though, his lies and
Like Shadyac's previous hits,
indiscretions have earned him an LiarLiar is an "idea" film. And as
ex-wife and a 10-year-old son with most "idea" films — with
who is fast learning that dad few exceptions — the "what if'
can't be counted on, not even to jokes in LiarLiar get old and pre-
show up at his birthday
dictable quickly. There
party. Poised to blow out
are a number of funny
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his candles, Max (Justin
lines, most of which are
Cooper, in his first feature
shown in the preview, and
film) wishes his father couldn't the jokes themselves wouldn't be
lie for one whole day.
all that good if it weren't for Car-
Sure enough, for the next 24 rey's milking them for everything
hours, dad utters nothing but the they're worth with his physical
naked truth. Having lost the abil- presence and goofy tweaks.
ity to sweet talk, Fletcher (Jim
Having to spend a good
Carrey) blurts out exactly what's amount of time carrying out
on his mind.
some tiresome plot points, the
As luck would have it, he's on movie seems only half commit-
the verge of the biggest case of ted to its star, leaving Carrey un-
his career, and his former wife is able to really get going with his
about to remarry and move away shtick. By far, the best parts of
with their son.
the movie are in the outtakes and
If the film Jerry Maguire can bloopers shown over the end
be summed up as a story about credits.
a sleazeball who grows a con-
science, Jim Carrey in LiarLiar
.®* 1/2

Jeffrey Hermann is an associate
editor at Visible Ink Press.

— Jeffrey Hermann

The film adaptation of Peter Hoeg's novel Smilla's Sense of Snowstars Julia Ormond.

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