This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Nice Guys Finish Last
Plot Overview
Providence, Rhode Island
(RI) is race conscious to
the extent of Freddie the barber offering hair straightening for men.
They counteract being the smallest state in the nation by displaying
good natured bravado and self-deprecation. State trooper Charlie
Baileygates (Jim Carrey) lives in a “modest” mini-house
on the beach and patrols the highways on a motorbike.
In the spring
his heart has turned to love and half the police force attend his
wedding. The limo driver Shonté Jackson (Tony Cox) is a freak
of nature trying hard to compensate. He's a midget with a chip on
his shoulder driving a long limousine, as well as a brainy, uppity
Negro putting the moves on lady Layla (Traylor Howard) the callow
white bride. When she leaves Charlie to follow her black heart, he
loses the respect of his comrades in blue, and cops are not much respected
by the community to begin with. That places Chuck at the bottom of
the barrel. Oh, well.
His growing pickaninny triplets respect
him, though, and he holds out for eighteen years before suffering
a mental breakdown (“You got a major screw loose.”)
Meds help him maintain (“He's a schizo”) and his captain
Colonel Partington (Robert Forster) gives him a therapeutic assignment
to escort a stopped motorist Miss Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger)
to upstate New York to sort out a paperwork snafu. She is,
however, the ex-moll of Dickie Thurman (Daniel Greene) a gangster
who wants to cut his ties with her while she's trying to go straight.
The two rejects become three when you take Charlie's Dissociative
Identity Disorder into account. They rely on each other for solace,
with help from the boys while avoiding the crooked cops.
Ideology
This duo-plus on the lam hop a train and the portly colored porter helps move their luggage into their compartment, no problem. That's more than we can say for the limo driver earlier.
Charlie Baileygates: Excuse me, do you people take checks?Limo Driver: Say that again. Do we people take checks? You mean a black man?
Charlie Baileygates: No, no, no, no, God, no! Your company.
Limo Driver: Don't give me that backtracking bullsh!t, that was a racist slur!
Layla Baileygates: Charlie, I don't ever want to hear you use the “N” word in this house!
Charlie Baileygates: I never said anything remotely racist!
Limo Driver: Oooh, so it's the little people thing, than?
Charlie Baileygates: No!
Limo Driver: You think just coz I'm small you can just push me around? Well, come on my friend. Let's boogie! I'm gonna give a little lesson in low center of gravity!
[Limo Driver chases Charlie]Charlie Baileygates: Hey, cut it! Stop it now, Sir!
Limo Driver: Don't patronize me with that ‘Sir’ crap!
It comes down to (Eccl. 7:16) “Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?” Charlie was over polite in engaging the testy little fellow who was clearly out of line, for which he should just forget the tip. Layla's comment exceeded the scope of the argument. It was the driver who would use the nigger “N” word, not her husband. The passionate argument left her bonded to the wrong Charlie, which soon enough destroyed their marriage.
There's also (Eccl. 7:17) “Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?” The way Irene from Texas puts it, “I'm a model. I moved to New York, but none of it worked out. So then I tried to be an actress. I got this eating disorder where I gained like twenty pounds. So I kind of lost my self respect. Before you know it I had 70-year-old guys trying to support me. I really didn't like who I was becoming.” So she applied for a job as head greenskeeper at a fancy country club. “I kinda fudged my résumé a little bit to get that job,” she said. “I don't know the first thing about running a golf course, Charlie.”
The owner of Cedar Creek Country Club was Dickie who concedes, “We got close.” The feds are after him for bribery, embezzlement, tax evasion, racketeering, payoffs to government agencies, and threats to those who stood in the way, and they're looking at Irene as an accessory. Dickie fears she “got wind of it.” Now “Irene has a lot of people who would like to see her in an unmarked grave.”
She foolishly drove cross-country with one of her headlights out, resulting in a police stop and unwanted attention.
Production Values
“” (2000) was directed by Bobby Farrelly and Peter Farrelly. It was written by Peter Farrelly, Mike Cerrone and Bobby Farrelly. It stars Jim Carrey and Renée Zellweger. The acting was good, and the leads Carrey and Zellweger carried the movie nicely. They had good on-screen chemistry and made the movie work, what with Carrey's physicality and Zellweger's expressiveness. It also had good performances from Chris Cooper, Richard Jenkins, Michael Bowman, Anthony Anderson, Robert Forster and Tony Cox.
MPAA rated it R for sexual content, crude humor, strong language and some violence. In Pennsylvania—next to RI—where I grew up, we could talk of colored people or Negroes without getting into trouble, though the PC term changed to blacks and then to African Americans or persons of color. I can still use “nigger” informally with cordial Texans. The word choice is somewhat regional. The Yankees seem bent on bowdlerizing the King's English. The n-word is in the Bible in Acts 13:1 referring respectfully to a teacher/prophet. The limo driver hailed from Boston. Charlie was addressing the uniform, not the person per se. The bad language in this film was mostly from the smart-mouthed kids who got it from watching stand-up comedians on TV
Stunt doubling was seamless. Charlie kissing his bride was Hollywood-excellent but her B&W lip-lock running away with the runt could have been shortened. Except for the comatose Holstein cow scene, the movie gallops right along. Where is Alec Baldwin when you need him? Runtime is 1 hour 56 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The target audience seems to be male teens. I'm considerably older but I found myself laughing at times, although some of the material was needlessly crude in my opinion. Three church buildings appear: one in the background at the start, one for a wedding, and one for confession. We wouldn't blame them for praying, but it wasn't shown. Family values in an unconventional family were highlighted. It should appeal to some tastes.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
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