BEFORE: After playing an FBI agent in "Tower Heist", Tea Leoni carries over to play a housewife and bank robber. I've been waiting for some premium channel to run this, but it hasn't happened - so I'm back to the iTunes store tonight. I have a feeling this is going to be happening more and more as I get closer to the end of my list (yeah, right...) but it means I have to watch tonight on my computer upstairs, and not down in the man-cave. After Comic-Con this year I should really re-purpose my iPad with the right apps so I can watch a film anywhere I want.
THE PLOT: Dick and Jane are living the good life, until Dick loses his job and his wife quits hers. The money is gone, and the house ends up in foreclosure. Dick decides to turn to a hilarious life of crime to pay the bills with his lovely wife by his side.
AFTER: Well, if I was looking for reasons to not quit my job, this film is chock full of them. I'm trying to recall the time-frame of the recession we're all still trying to climb out from under - this film was released in 2005, after the Enron scandal and the last stock-market crash, but before the Bernie Madoff scheme, the TARP bailout, and before anyone knew what a bundled sub-prime mortgage is. It's a wonder that this film doesn't get more attention for being prescient, since what is now called "The Great Recession" didn't really start until 2007. (EDIT: According to IMDB, the film is set in the year 2000. That explains the prominent "Gore/Lieberman" posters...)
Of course everything here is amplified for comic effect - I don't think this is meant to be a serious account of what can happen to a family that's fallen on hard times. But every joke has to have a bit of reality in it, so clearly somebody somewhere lost their job, and then multiplied the consequences by 100 to achieve humor.
I think, however, that there would be a lot of interim steps for most Americans between losing their white-collar job and performing convenience-store heists, let alone submitting their bodies for medical experiments. Also, I'd like to see the stats on whether bank robbers really need the money, or if they do what they do for the thrill. How many professional thieves got caught while pulling off "one last heist", and how many have seen the writing on the wall and knew when to quit?
I made the right call by putting this one right after "Tower Heist", because the two films have a lot in common. In both cases, the rich stay rich even after the company folds or the ponzi scheme collapses, and the working stiffs all lose their pensions, and have to go to great lengths to get them back. In "Tower Heist", that involves a physical heist, and here it involves something more akin to bank fraud. But either way, when you rob from thieves, the two crimes really cancel each other out, right?
Similarly, if you hate a hater, or are prejudiced against bigotry, ultimately that's OK. My tirade against the misogynist and homophobic Brett Ratner seems to have gotten some attention, so if you're new to the Movie Year, please make yourself at home. I'll try to think of some more "Tales from NYU Film School" since that proved to be quite popular (Thanks, Andy!). I do recall a number of music video shoots where I was put in charge of the craft table, and on the last day of the shoot I was told to throw the uneaten food away, and instead I brought it all - cookies, crackers, sodas - back to my dorm room. That's one way I survived in NYC for a couple years working only part-time . I then worked as a movie theater usher for a summer, which was a good gig - not because I got to see movies for free, because on my days off I wanted to be anywhere else - but because it was a nights + weekend job, which left my days free for job-hunting.
NITPICK POINT: I don't have any kids, so I'm not really in a place to judge how difficult it is to raise one. Many people choose to hire a nanny or other domestic help, and I don't have a problem with that. But if the money is running short, and both Mommy and Daddy are out of work, I don't see why they kept the nanny. Can't one or both of them straighten up the house, or cook dinner since they have more free time? Laying off the nanny didn't even seem to be an option, though that would have saved them some money.
Also starring Jim Carrey (last seen in "Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls"), Alec Baldwin (last seen in "Along Came Polly"), Richard Jenkins (last seen in "Intolerable Cruelty"), with cameos from Angie Harmon, John Michael Higgins (last seen in "We Bought a Zoo"), Clint Howard (last seen in "The Dilemma"), Jeff Garlin (last heard in "Paranorman"), Laurie Metcalf (last seen in "Internal Affairs"), Rick Overton, Ralph Nader.
RATING: 5 out of 10 indictments
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