Liar Liar

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Liar Liar
Promotional poster for Liar Liar
Directed by	Tom Shadyac
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Written by	Paul Guay Stephen Mazur
Starring	Jim Carrey Maura Tierney Jennifer Tilly Swoosie Kurtz Amanda Donohoe and Cary Elwes
Music by	John Debney
Cinematography	Russell Boyd
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	March 21, 1997 (USA)
Running time	86 min.
Language	English

Liar Liar (1997) is an American comedy film starring Jim Carrey. It was directed by Tom Shadyac from a story written by Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (1998) for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical. The film is the second (out of three) collaboration between Jim Carrey and Tom Shadyac, the first being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and the third being Bruce Almighty.

1 Plot outline
2 Trivia
3 References in Other Movies
4 Cast
5 External links

[edit] Plot outline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Fletcher Reede is a particularly career-focused lawyer and divorced father. He has a habit of giving precedence to his job and breaking promises to be with his young son Max, and then lying to Max and his ex-wife Audrey about the real reason he missed the date. Fletcher lets Max down once too often, missing his birthday party, and has to deal with the consequences when Max makes a wish while blowing out the candles on the cake and it comes true. The wish is that Fletcher cannot tell a lie for 24 hours.

DVD case for Liar Liar

Fletcher soon has several embarrassing instances where he blurts out exactly what he is thinking and figures out that he is unable to lie or even withhold a true answer. Some of these instances include: After sleeping with a colleague, she asks "was it good for you?" "I've had better," he responds. When an attractive girl says everyone is so nice to her, he says it's because she has big jugs and that he wants to squeeze them. Also when he walks out of the elevator and everyone is plugging their nose, he admits he "did it". When an obese man asks "What's up," he says, "Your cholesterol, fatty!" He also tells a co-worker he doesn't know his name because he's not important enough. These incidents come at a rather bad time as he is fighting a case in court, which, should he win, could be a huge boost to his career. His main witness is willing to commit perjury to help win but Fletcher discovers he cannot even ask a question if he knows the answer will be a lie. Meanwhile, Audrey is threatening to move to Boston with her new boyfriend, Jerry, and take Max with them.

Over the course of the film, Fletcher realizes what is truly important to him and, at the end, struggles to stop his son from being taken so far away from him. He also manages to win the case truthfully by using a loophole in the law, with the repercussions being a major catalyst to his understanding of what he is likely to lose.

Near the end, Fletcher hijacks a stairway used to get onto planes and rushes towards his son. He is injured after an accident but does manage to speak to his son. The "Curse" finishes at 8:15 pm, but Fletcher vows to tell nothing but the truth from now on.

[edit] Trivia

According to an interview with Jim Carrey, he says that the gag of chasing his son as "The Claw" was something his father did to him and his siblings. It was his tribute to his own father.
The film was the last screen role of Jason Bernard and the first screen role for Cheri Oteri.
Jim Carrey turned down the role of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery to be in this movie.
In the scene where Fletcher beats himself up in the bathroom, no sound effects were used; those are really the sounds of Jim Carrey's head slamming into the urinal, floor, and walls.
Max asks his father if sitting too close to the television will damage his eyes, which earns him a "not in a million years" reply from Carrey's character. In The Cable Guy, Carrey's character sat very close to the television set throughout his childhood and adult life. Max also asks if he made a face would his face get stuck like that. Fletcher responds, "No, in fact some people make a great living that way." Carrey was referencing himself.
When Fletcher hastily lists his recent traffic offenses to a police officer, he does so in the same breathless, fast-talking manner exemplified by Carrey in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls.

[edit] References in Other Movies

Cal (Seth Rogen) references Liar Liar in The 40-year-old Virgin, calling it a "smart movie" and claiming its moral was "don't lie."

In Bruce Almighty, Jim Carrey's news reporter character is temporarily billed as "Mr. Exclusive." The poster used to illustrate this is an unused Liar Liar promotional poster.