Dumb and Dumber

Dumb and Dumber is the purest expression of physical comedy in modern cinema — a film that proves Jim Carrey is the most gifted physical comedian since Jerry Lewis and possibly since Buster Keaton. The Farrelly Brothers' road trip comedy follows Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne, two spectacularly unintelligent best friends, on a cross-country trip to return a briefcase to a woman Lloyd has fallen for — unaware that the briefcase contains ransom money.

Jim Carrey's Lloyd is a tour de force of physical comedy. The chipped tooth, the toilet scene, the 'most annoying sound in the world,' the dream sequence where he rips a man's heart out — Carrey throws himself into the role with a commitment that borders on self-destruction. But Jeff Daniels matches him beat for beat. Daniels, a respected dramatic actor, was an unlikely choice, and his willingness to debase himself completely — the toilet scene is one of the most notorious in comedy history — is what makes the partnership work.

The Farrelly Brothers understood that the key to stupid comedy is sincerity. Lloyd and Harry are not winking at the audience. They are genuinely, profoundly, lovably stupid, and their friendship is absolutely real. The scene where Lloyd imagines life with Mary Swanson — and it is just as idiotic as his real life — is comedy operating at multiple levels simultaneously. Dumb and Dumber argues that stupidity, in its purest form, is a kind of innocence. And innocence is always funny.