Ron Howard’s masterful film is a family fantasy comedy coiled with imaginative visual detail and crackling with surreal humour, but really for all its achievements (of which there are plenty) it is Carrey’s astounding performance that elevates it into something truly, mischievously, special.
The application of the full prosthetic makeup took over 8 hours and included a rare combination of dyed Yak hair and spandex, beneath which Carrey was still able to conjure his own brand of comedy contortion with gleeful villainy. It is, quite simply, a uniquely inspired contribution to cinema’s history of physical comedy. Eccentric and bounding with energy, this is a family film like no other.
This year, the Christmas itinerary is as follows: “4:00, wallow in self-pity. 4:30, stare into the abyss. 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one. 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me. I can’t cancel that again. 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing. I’m booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness.”