Movie review 'Dumb and Dumber To' : Revives the essence of an old cult classic
Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly
Cast: Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, Rob Riggle
Rating: Three stars
Sequels can be tricky — especially if the original was a runaway success. You’re expected to create the same euphoria and maintain some of the original elements for the sake of continuity but at the same time, not make the work look like one big déjà vu. Dumb and Dumber To is a fine example of a film that while reviving the essence of an old cult classic, offers its viewers something new too.
The film starts with a gruff Harry (Jeff Daniels) and a wheel chair-bound Lloyd (Jim Carrey) speaking to each other at an old age home. The years (two decades precisely) seem to have taken a toll over the two endearing, dim-witted and inseparable friends from Rhode Island who find themselves to have slowed down with the passage of time. The sombreness of the scene (if at all) lasts for not more than two minutes before the madness breaks loose. The two take off on a road trip across the States to deliver a box of life-altering something to Harry’s love child, Penny – someone he just found out about while ago after clearing the junk mail from his parents’ house.
What follows is a road trip in search of the long lost daughter peppered with scheming negative characters who end up being defeated by the film’s heroes in due course (that’s hardly a spoiler when you’re watching a film where the protagonists survive fire explosions, fake an illness for two decades for the kick of it and break into an old age home so they can steal a pair of hearing aids).
Except for may be a few of fine lines on their faces thanks to the decades gone past, Harry and Lloyd haven’t changed at all. Carrey as Lloyd continues to amuse the audiences with his animated expressions (no actor we know can stick out his tongue or pop out his eyes the way he does). Jeff as Harry does a fine job lending himself to the simple, good-natured idiot that the plot demands him to be. For recall value perhaps, the directors, Farrelly brothers maintained a few quirks of the original film such as old ladies who know how to pay back, birds that are decapitated due to the duo’s folly and the general antics of a chase sequence between the good guys and the bad guys. The beauty of the film lies in the fact that it makes a sequel after two decades look like a seamless transition of the plot without trying to hard.
Much like the original, this one too, will cater to audiences with a certain sensibility. If you’re one for slapstick/ farcical brand of humour, you’re in for a good time. But if you’re one for subtleties and wisecracks, this may offer you only a few chuckles. Whatever, your brand of humour or cinema, nostalgia panders to most palettes and for that reason alone perhaps, you might want to give this film a watch.
