Have a bit of fun with Jim and Téa

“Fun With Dick and Jane” illustrates a point. Jim Carrey deserves having his name above the title and before the director’s name. Carrey’s performance mirrors the energy of his stand-up routines. The story is secondary to his zany, overreacting characters. People go to see Carrey, not the plot.

In this latest film, Carrey’s character, Dick, is fed up with playing by the rules. The Enron-type corporation where he has worked for 15 years abruptly disappears, cutting off his employment, pension plan and electricity. Having lost everything, including the grass from his front yard, Dick hatches a scheme to get his life back. With Jane in tow, he robs liquor stores, coffee outlets and head shops. However, these holdups fail to restore what his years of hard work accumulated, such as his stock investments and pension plan. So Dick figures a new and bigger scheme for payback.

Carrey enjoys playing mild-mannered, oppressed characters who snap, going off on crazy tangents. It is the perfect outlet for his goofy physical comedy. For example, his character reaches a high note during one of the robberies. Dressed head-to-toe in black, he taunts his helpless but deserving victim, shouting orders through a voice-altering device that makes him sound like Mickey Mouse on helium.

Téa Leoni, as Jane, attempts to play Carrey’s voice of reason. She tries to talk him out of his schemes before going along for the ride anyway. Like Carrey’s, Leoni’s humor is physical, though hers is less vocal. For instance, a bad reaction to cosmetics leaves her face and lips comically disfigured. She gets laughs just trying to look and act normal with her face distorted.

“Fun With Dick and Jane” pokes fun at corporate criminals and the pensionless employees they leave behind. Everyone is the butt of jokes including the chief executive (Alec Baldwin), his cronies and the media.

Joking about white-collar crime these days might appear to border on the politically incorrect -- too realistic to be funny. But this movie is all about Jim Carrey making his audience laugh. Opening to bad reviews, “Fun with Dick and Jane” has staying power. Maybe moviegoers know what they like to see better than the critics do.

* PEGGY J. ROGERS produces commercial videos and documentaries.

20060126ito1pjnc(LA)Téa Leoni and Jim Carrey star in “Fun With Dick and Jane,” now showing in theaters.20060126h0g0znke(LA)