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Me, Myself & Irene by Mike O'Brien Photo courtesy of imdb.com Jim Carrey stars in Me, Myself & Irene as Charlie Baileygates, a Rhode Island State Trooper. Charlie is an extremely nice man, who is slightly awkward, kind of dorky, and completely incapable of standing up for himself. The movie starts out as a flashback eighteen years earlier, when Charlie married Layla, whom he thought was the most beautiful woman in the world. After the wedding, Layla hit it off with the limousine driver, Shonte, played by Tony Cox of Bad Santa. Imagine Charlie’s surprise nine months later when Layla gives birth to triplets–who are African-American. After the boys were born, Layla runs off with Shonte, breaking Charlie’s heart. He bottles these feelings up for nearly two decades, along with the feelings of being constantly pushed around at work, until one day when he snaps. Charlie’s suppression causes him to develop schizophrenia and a new Charlie is born–one with a filthy mouth, a raspy voice, a bad temper, and a different name–Hank. Charlie and Hank switch back and forth at the drop of a hat, as a more comical Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Charlie’s superiors at work all agree that he needs a vacation and Irene’s timing couldn’t be any more perfect. Irene, played by Renée Zellweger, is pulled over for a hit-and-run accident and needs to be escorted by a trooper back to her hometown of Massena, New York and Charlie is just the one for the job. Along the way, Charlie and Hank both fall head over heels for Irene.
Overall, Me, Myself & Irene was a pretty entertaining movie, which would have been better if it was just a tad shorter. While there was definitely not a shortage on hilarity, there was quite a bit of unnecessary gross-out humor just for the sake of being gross. Like Charlie and Hank’s personalities, the movie would abruptly go back and forth between funny and completely unfunny. The obvious spark between Layla and Shonte, immediately followed by Layla giving birth to three black babies was comic genius, but Hank urinating into the gas tank of a car was just dumb.
Jim Carrey, complete with his usual arsenal of facial expressions, did an excellent job of switching between the two characters. He even went as far as getting into a solo fistfight, as he acted out a Charlie/Hank confrontation. Carrey buffs may be reminded of The Mask, where Carrey’s nerdy character put on a green mask and morphed into a suave cartoon.
Despite the Farrelly Brothers’ hometown pride, (Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary were both set in Rhode Island, as well), much of Me, Myself & Irene was filmed in Vermont. The scene at the gas station, while supposedly in Massena, was filmed at Addison’s 4 Corners-Country Store. The train scenes were set in Providence, but were actually filmed in Burlington and Essex Junction. And the climatic river scene was filmed at the footbridge in Middlebury.
All in all, Me, Myself & Mike would say that this movie, while stupid at times, had more good than it did bad. |
Directed by: Bobby and Peter Farrelly
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