So funny it should carry a laxative warning

Rating: 8/10 (12 April 2010)

If humour is simply a way of coping with the overriding misery of existence then Dumb & Dumber emerges like a cure for cancer. Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) are the knuckle-headed losers road-trippin' their way to the sunny climes of Aspen to deliver a lost briefcase to the mysterious Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly). (Lloyd fell in love with her, you see, while he drove her to the airport.) Along the way they steal from a blind kid, poison a hit-man, and give a motorbike cop a swig of moonshine he'll never forget... And that's before they've even reached Colorado.
Writers and directors the Farrelly Brothers forego the cutesy angst that blunted There's Something About Mary and go flat-out on the sick and the scatological. It's puerile, of course, but Carrey's clown has never had a better home, and Jeff Daniels shows expert comic timing to add to his impressive dramatic range. The script they share is sharp as a shiv, as well as being endlessly quotable. Does the gag count sink ever so slightly in the final reel? Perhaps. But just wait for the epilogue: probably the funniest comedy pay-off since Some Like It Hot.