Dumb and Dumber is one of my favourite movies of all time.
That admission might surprise people given my usual predilection for indie fare with the occasional blockbuster thrown in for good popcorn-munching measure, but it’s true, and one I have been happy to make more than once (see here and here for instance).
In fact, I am a big fan, for the most part, of the Farrelly Brothers, the delightfully twisted minds who came up with Dumb and Dumber, Something About Mary (also a big favourite of mine) and Kingpin, and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that in amongst all the verbal and physical jokes is the beating heart of keenly observed and felt humanity.
It makes sense since really good comedy often draws from the wellspring of human misfortune and tragedy, and in the case of Dumb and Dumber, the sheer idiocy of Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels), and remembers that for it to have any impact, it must remember there is a person’s story at the heart of the wisecracking.
It’s something that The Huffington Post reminded me of when they featured the following trailer by Vimeo user Josh Rocklage who has brilliantly re-imagined Dumb and Dumber as an epic drama with its emotionally memorable centre brought happily to the fore in the re-titled Love and Lover.
So what is it like exactly?
Why not let Ryan Kristobak at Huffington Post explain:
“Gone are the bathroom jokes, violent condiment squirts and most annoying sounds in the world, instead focusing in on the relationship between Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas and Lauren Holly’s Mary Swanson. Instead of Carrey playing a guy whose idiotic enough to travel across the country in a shaggin’ wagon because he’s too stupid to realize how creepy that is, he’s a normal guy who travels across the country in a shaggin’ wagon, fully aware of his stalker status. We just hope that sloppy, beautiful kiss makes the final cut.”
With a little while to wait until the 20-years-in-the-making sequel Dumb and Dumber To hits the screens in November this year, Love and Lover will go a long way to keeping us entertained and enthralled in the meantime.