"I spent my life savings turning my van into a dog."
As Jim Carrey told Digital Spy in our recent chat, it was a chance viewing of his 1994 comedy hit Dumb and Dumber on television that lured him back to that iconic bowl cut for the new sequel. But as Harry and Lloyd spread the gospel of dumb to a new generation, just how well does the original movie hold up twenty years on?
The memory can cheat. As time passes, idealisation and nostalgia can mask the truth – whether that be worshipping a movie from your childhood that would induce a cringing fit if you saw it today. Yet despite a soundtrack that includes Apache Indian and the Crash Test Dummies, Dumb and Dumber has a timeless quality. Its goofy brilliance transcends any notion that it's a relic best left in the '90s alongside Tamagotchis and the Macarena.
How can you not love a movie in which Jeff Daniels' Harry strolls up to a young lady in a pastel blue tuxedo and remarks "Nice set of hooters you've got there," before directing her startled expression in the direction of a pair of owls? Or in which Carrey's Lloyd messes up a rehearsed romantic proposal to his dream lady and ends up saying "I desperately wanna make love to a schoolboy"? Dumb and Dumber is crammed full of crude moments concocted by the Farrelly Brothers, but the incredible physical performances from Carrey and Daniels as the gormless duo ensure that it never feels nasty.
Their carefree silliness regresses us to an almost childlike state free of cynicism while watching it – an escapism that's very welcome from a real world full of depressing matters far more serious than one's tongue being frozen to a metal pole on a ski lift, or a blind child being sold a decapitated bird. The sheer number of fun, throwaway moments ensures a breakneck pace with barely any time between laughs, with highlights including Lloyd's attempt at martial arts, lighting his own farts and Harry's laxative-induced toilet horrors. Highbrow this is not, a fact cemented by the cacophonous unleashing of 'The Most Annoying Sound In The World'.
It's hard to think of any other actors who could have pulled off the central roles with such amiability despite having so many scatological skits to contend with. According to the internet, a source of information that Never Lies, the roles were offered to the likes of Steve Martin, Gary Oldman, Martin Short and Nicolas Cage. Just imagine.
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A surprising, mostly unexplored quality emerges when watching the film twenty years on. There's an underlying sadness and tragic quality, echoing The Odd Couple, that peeps from beneath the smiley surface on a number of occasions. "We've got no food. We've got no jobs," mourns Carrey's Lloyd in a manner that evokes contemporary British sensation The Wealdstone Raider. "I'm sick and tired of being a nobody," he remarks while in his squalid flat. For him, like many of us, laughter and immaturity can provide that release.
Dumb and Dumber is an extension of its lead characters - bereft of self-consciousness, full of energy and bearing an abundance of confidence. Despite a mixed critical response and a Razzie nomination for Jim Carrey, it managed to become a huge commercial hit and spawn an animated spin-off, a ghastly prequel and finally a sequel - Dumb and Dumber To - that provides more of the same humour and provides plenty of fun if you can bypass the burden of expectation. Harry and Lloyd's childlike logic regresses us to a place of innocence and fearlessness. It's a wonderful retreat.
