Fun with Dick and Jane
*/**** Image C+ Sound A-
starring George Segal, Jane Fonda, Ed McMahon, Dick Gautier
screenplay by David Giler and Jerry Belson and Mordecai Richler, based on the novel by Gerald Gaiser
directed by Ted Kotcheff
by Travis Mackenzie Hoover Although Hollywood and Big Statements have gone hand-in-hand since the very beginning, it's usually a match made in artistic Hell. Being virtuous and fun taxes the tiny minds of the movie colony, resulting in unpleasant "entertainments" that frequently cancel themselves out. Case in point: the original Fun with Dick and Jane, which races through some liberal subtext concerning economic hardships and "materialism" while slinging lame jokes that trivialize everything the film name-checks. That Ted Kotcheff isn't the right guy for pointed satire should have been obvious from the rest of his fuzzy career, but the complete lack of seriousness (or black absurdism) from all quarters reduces the film to just another naughty crime comedy that isn't even very funny–a fact made all the more puzzling by the presence of Canada's acid wit Mordecai Richler among the writing credits.
Kotcheff's ex-college roommate Richler aside, it's hard to think of how this movie could have gone wrong. Husband and wife Dick (George Segal) and Jane (Jane Fonda) are satirical targets the size of an airplane hangar: living beyond their means and for appearances, they're completely sideswiped when Dick is downsized from his job as an aerospace executive and can no longer pay their astronomical bills. Suddenly plunged into the ranks of the destitute, Dick and Jane flounder. Dick screws up getting welfare (in a series of interludes designed to show the Catch-22 nightmare of the system) while Jane proves utterly incapable of finding work. And so, after a farcical episode involving a loan shark and a couple of stick-up men, they hit upon the idea of robbery as a means of making cash. Thus the pair has the potential to become ambiguous sources of identification, at once victims of the system and victims of themselves.
But don't ask the finished product to seize on any of this. Fun with Dick and Jane knows that people yearn for the kind of material comfort the protagonists crave, thus it doesn't really rock the boat–the brunt of the fury is levelled at Dick's evil ex-boss (Ed McMahon!), whose record of bribery ironically provides the pair with their ultimate salvation. That Dick knows of his company's corrupt practices and remains utterly sympathetic is only one of the film's neat tricks; the other is the exploitation of blacks for cheap punchlines, as when Dick walks into a bar he's targeted and retreats as soon as the patrons turn out to be dark-skinned (there's naturally a line about bussing white criminals into black neighbourhoods). Don't get me started on the Latino maintenance guy from Dick's old company, who shows him the ropes of unemployment before the narrative neatly discards him.
Mind you, the film has worse problems than its politics. Kotcheff proves to be a bear for comic timing, blowing every single good line he's got on stunned reaction shots and a stumblebum mise-en-scène. Where he should ratchet up the comic tension, he lets everything go slack–fine for a romantic comedy trifle but murder on a concept-driven number like this. Not that he's got many good lines to work with: the script–by Richler, David Giler, and Jerry Belson–is insult humour of the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I persuasion, nothing you couldn't come up with over a few beers at a patio party. Throw in Jane Fonda, noted for her incomprehension of comedy (see also: Monster-in-Law), and you have a distinct lack of rib-tickling that does nobody much good. Trapped between making a statement and pandering to the audience, the filmmakers decide to flip the bird to both imperatives–in addition to anyone fool enough to sit down to watch.
THE DVD
Sony's new DVD of the film, a straightforward reissue of their 2003 release with fresh cover art and a supplemental trailer for the current Fun with Dick and Jane remake, leaves something to be desired. The 1.85:1, 16×9-enhanced image has washed-out colours and harsh grain that obscures fine detail instead of enhancing it. Faring much better, the Dolby 2.0 mono sound boasts superb cadences and surprisingly powerful bass.
95 minutes; PG; 1.85:1 (16×9-enhanced); English DD 2.0 (Mono); CC; English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai subtitles; DVD-5; Region One; Sony
