Liar Liar

The load-bearing choice in Tom Shadyac’s film is what case Fletcher is arguing. Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur have said it was originally a murder trial, switched to a divorce. That ties the picture together: the marriage he defends in court is the one he is failing at home, so the late turn from gags to custody stops looking like a swerve. They first wrote the idea around a child who promised his grandmother he would not lie, then aged it up. Studios disliked the pitch so much that their manager said pitching it was damaging their careers; they were finally hired off two sentences. Nothing ever explains why the birthday wish works, and that blank was left deliberately. Once Jim Carrey signed at twenty million dollars the script was broadened for physical comedy. Cary Elwes says that when Carrey beats himself up in the courthouse bathroom his head really hit the concrete stage floor, and the sound was kept. It opened on 21 March 1997 to 31.4 million dollars and finished at 302.7 million worldwide. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe in musical or comedy. A good fit if an unexplained rule and a courtroom as the main comic stage suit you. Not for you if resting every laugh on one performer’s body wears you down.