Poffy
Ace: Vegetable Detective
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When
Over-The-Top is Under-Achieving.
©
Jon Dunmore, 19 Oct 2005.
Alllrighty then…
Like a ballistic missile launched from the irreverent camp
of In Living Color (of which he was the odd-white-man-out
alumnus), Jim Carrey's second-ever leading role remains a
watershed performance of mega-ultra-outré singularity.
Shadyac's
straightforward direction leaves Carrey, as the eponymous
hero, the much-needed space to run amok like a force of
nature that few comedians before him have commanded (notably,
early Jerry Lewis).
The
plot of the Pet Detective recovering a kidnapped dolphin
mascot is almost irrelevant, as scenery-chewing is taken
to oxygen-depleting levels whenever Carrey inhabits more
than one-tenth of the screen frame, in a frenetic story
that takes Ace from football fields to Southern backwaters,
to infiltrating a mental asylum and swimming with sharks.
Sophisticates
and art-house elitists whine over Carrey's Method, but his
execution is unquestionably adept and engineered for maximum
impact. Compared to the exhausted shtick of the Adam
Sandlers and Pauly Shores, this is a Bergman Festival.
With loud Hawaiian shirts.
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