Dumb & Dumber

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 comedy film starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. It was written and directed by The Farrelly Brothers. It is a modern example of slapstick comedy and gross-out humor. Since its release, the film has become what many consider a comedy classic and the source of countless humorous quotes. Dumb & Dumber contributed to the launch to stardom of Jim Carrey and set the foundation for many Farrelly Brothers films yet to come.

Background information

The film was made on an estimated $16 million budget, which was surpassed on the opening weekend. It grossed $127,175,354 in the United States, and $246,200,000 worldwide. The movie has amassed $63,600,000 in the USA on rentals.

Although the film did not come away with any major American motion picture awards, it was very successful at the MTV Movie Awards. Jim Carrey won for Best Comedic Performance, Jim Carrey and Lauren Holly won for Best Kiss, and Jim Carrey & Jeff Daniels were nominated for Best On-Screen Duo.

A prequel, Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was released in 2003 to terrible reviews and poor box office.

Tagline: For Harry and Lloyd every day is a no-brainer.

Plot

Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne are two well-meaning, extremely unintelligent men who live together in their Providence, Rhode Island apartment, and are recently out of work. Previous to his firing, Lloyd drives Marry Swanson to the airport by limousine. Christmas is immediately smitten and falls in love with her along the way. After entering the airport terminal, Mary sets a cash-filled briefcase in the middle of a terminal area in the airport before her departure to Aspen, Colorado. Upon seeing this, Lloyd rushes in to bring it to Mary, thinking she has forgotten it. What he does not know is that the briefcase was intentionally left behind because it contains ransom money for the man who had Mary's husband kidnapped.

Lloyd (after being fired from his job) returns to his apartment at the same time as the also-fired and equally dimwitted Harry. The two leave briefly to search for new jobs, but to no avail. After returning, Harry discovers his pet parakeet Petey has died due to his head "falling off". What actually happened was that the bird was murdered by Mary's husband's kidnappers, who tracked Lloyd back to his place. Between the death of the bird and Lloyd's wallet being stolen by an elderly woman, the two decide to leave their troubles behind and start anew in Aspen. They also intend to return the briefcase to Mary and become a part of the town's social scene.

Harry and Lloyd trek westward across the country in hopes of finding Mary, encountering several misfortunes and adversaries along the way. Joe "Mental" Mentalino, one of the people hired by Mary's kidnapper tries to foil Lloyd and Harry's plans around the time they get to the midwest. Mental's attempt to poison the two and steal the briefcase fails and winds up killing himself after the idiots mistakenly medicate him with rat poison.

Once the two arrive in Aspen, they realize that they are strapped for cash and have no place to stay. During a quarrel, they mistakenly break the case open to discover for the first time that the briefcase is filled with cash. Upon discovering this, they "borrow" the money to buy elaborate clothes, a Lamborghini, and a very expensive hotel suite. The intend to pay the loans back with paper IOUs. Later in the visit, the two encounter Mary at a wildlife preservation benefit- only Harry is the one who talks and becomes friends with her. Lloyd discovers Harry's two-timing ways and sabotages his date with Mary by spiking tea with laxative, leading to a lengthy toilet scene by Jeff Daniels, a great example of bathroom humor.

Lloyd and Harry continue to argue over who "gets" Mary, culminating in the kidnapping of all three by Mary's husband's kidnapper. The kidnapper turns out to be a close friend of the Swanson family. There is a brief standoff in the hotel room amongst the four, until FBI agents storm in and arrest the kidnapper. Mary's husband is returned to her (much to the dismay of Lloyd and Harry), and the two fools are left to find a way home for themselves. Along the way home, they inadvertently turn down a chance to be oil boys for bikini models.

Main characters

• Lloyd Christmas is an illiterate, good-hearted man who has apparently been fired from several jobs due to his lack of intelligence. The most recent of which is working for a limo company. He falls in love with Mary while driving her to the airport and is destined to track her down and spend his future with her. He, along with Harry, is the main protagonist.
• Harry Dunne is a dog groomer, and best friend to Lloyd. What he lacks in common sense, he makes up for by being a superior linguist to Lloyd. He, along with Lloyd, plans to open up his own pet store to specialize in selling worm farms. The store is tentatively named "I Got Worms".
• Mary Swanson is an attractive lady whose husband has been kidnapped by a family friend. She is the object of Lloyd and Harry's longing.

Secondary characters

• Nicholas Andre is Mary Swanson's husband's kidnapper, as well as a long-time confidante of the Swanson family. He holds the husband for ransom as his plot is tarnished by Harry and Lloyd.
• Joe Mentalino, a.k.a "Mental", is a cold-hearted criminal who works as a henchman for Nicholas Andre, the kidnapper. He attempts to kill Lloyd and Harry, as well as retrieve the briefcase, but is accidentally killed for his troubles. Although he himself is a man of below-average intelligence, he is still angered by the idiocy of Lloyd and Harry.
• J.P. Shay is the female accomplice of Mental's. She appears as Nicholas's date at the wildlife benefit.
• Beth Jordan is an FBI special agent and all-around blabbermouth. She befriends Lloyd in a bar as he expects to meet with Mary and meets Harry as they both fill up at a gas station. Neither Lloyd nor Harry know as they meet Beth that she works for the FBI.
• Sea Bass is apparently an expert fisherman with a hot temper. He spits in Harry's hamburger after being accidentally beaned by a salt shaker.

Cast

• Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas
• Jeff Daniels as Harry Dunne
• Lauren Holly as Mary Swanson
• Mike Starr as Joe Mentalino
• Charles Rocket as Nicholas Andre
• Karen Duffy as J.P. Shay
• Cam Neely as Sea Bass
• Harland Williams as Pennsylvania State Trooper
• Victoria Rowell as Beth Jordan

Trivia

• Jim Carrey took out the cap in his chipped tooth for this role.
• The hotel suite that Lloyd and Harry stay in is the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado.
• Jim Carrey refused to shoot an alternate ending of Harry and Lloyd getting on the bus with the Tropicana girls.
• The scene in which the girls on the bus try to pick up Lloyd and Harry, "the most annoying sound in the world", and the "We've landed on the moon!" line were all ad-libbed by Jim Carrey.
• Production in Salt Lake City, Utah was completely shut down due to Jim Carrey having gallstone surgery.

External link

• Dumb & Dumber IMDb entry