Seen and not seen
We recently watched "Fun with Dick and Jane"
on DVD. After everything that I have read about the middle class crunch
and many closely related related topics, it was kind of funny how every
relevant issue was distorted and simplified so that they would fit into
and work in a movie. There also must have been a series of rewrites and
script doctoring to turn this movie into a Jim Carrey vehicle, and even
though I missed the publicity interviews where the stars talk about
this movie, I can easily imagine what a serious message this movie was
supposed to have in them and how concerned Jim Carrey in person is
about certain societal developments and how this movie addresses them
in a comical way.
(Of course, all publicity interviews are just as scripted as the movie itself --- when I was younger and didn't quite realize this, I kind of wondered how come in every based-on-a-true-story movie the star had always admired the main character and had always considered the topic of the movie to be very important so that he is currently very concerned about it and wanted to make this movie for that reason.)
After the hero and his wife have lost their jobs because the rich evil CEO (but I repeat myself), whose similarities to George W. Bush are not exactly shall we say subtle, has financially looted the Enron-style company where the hero has just been promoted to management, they quickly lose their financial resources and have to live hand to mouth in a fancy house that quickly loses all its furniture. Obviously, these people are not the proverbial "millionaires next door". But you have to keep up appearances for the neighbours, one of whom is played by Richard Burgi, which is itself alway funny these days. Unfortunately, his character's last name is not "Jones": some writer there missed an opportunity.
Before he unexpectedly loses his job, Carrey's newly-promoted character is sent on a TV's financial newsmagazine where the host asks him about the new revelations about the company being worthless. His inability to answer this question sends the company's stock price into a downward spiral so that its price falls to zero in what must have been less than a minute. Myself, I had no idea stock prices were this precarious. Perhaps some more shrewd investor whose ethics are not as high as mine could come up with a scheme to make money with this. I have also never been able to really understand what difference the stock price makes in some corporation's operations, since that stock has already been sold, but I admit being somewhat of a financial illiterate. When Carrey's character comes back from the interview, the whole company is in shambles. Speed of modern life sure his hectic.
Once it has been comically established that all physical work is for losers and totally beneath Carrey's character, whereas the wife has been initially established as a more likable and down-to-earth person with a real and concrete job that she gives up after hearing about her husband's promotion, many clever script tricks are needed to make Carrey's character and his feelings of entitlement acceptable for the mainstream audience. I somehow kind of doubt that most viewers naturally sympathize with him and feel his pain of not being able to buy a new Mercedes every year. As an aside, I didn't quite understand why it was necessary to load one towering plate full of food in an all-you-can-eat restaurant: wouldn't you be allowed to go for seconds? Or do the restaurants in the Southern parts of the USA perhaps operate differently in this respect? Anything is possible.
When Carrey's character eventually swallows his pride and agrees to do physical work for a pittance, it's a good thing that in addition to evil and selfish white people who have caused the whole mess, there are also warm, kind and friendly Mexicans who accept him and help him. Unfortunately, the evil jackbooted border guards constantly harass and oppress these hardworking people with nazi-style swoops where they demand to see everybody's papers, and immediately deport those who have no papers. Just like in the real life. I have to wonder why Americans, who are so famously freedom- and justice-loving and a beacon to the whole world in this, tolerate such antics in their own country. Hopefully this movie will help raise awareness of this issue and force the government to end such policies. And it is only natural and morally justified that Carrey's character, after seeing such inhuman and cruel policy enacted firsthand, soon helps a whole carload of illegal immigrants to cross the border. The effect that this little stunt has on the availability of physical work and the salary that it pays is never examined further in this movie, though. This is bit of a shame, since I'm sure the moviemakers could have come up with some kind of a social message.
As should be obvious from the trailer, after the story has slogged for an hour or so (at least it freaking felt like an hour), Carrey's character finally snaps and starts striking back at society that has oppressed him so long and denies him his rightful place in it. He does this by robbing people and various places of business in comical armed heists, during which Carrey finally gets to perform his signature facial, bodily and vocal contortions. After a very close call of almost getting caught in a heist where another white middle-class couple that has chosen the same survival strategy of crime serves as the sacrificial lambs to pay for their crimes, the funloving couple decides to give up such crimes and instead pull one large and precariously tricky heist on the evil CEO himself, with the aid of the company's second-in-command who is disillusioned and in pangs of conscience.
Many things go wrong but all is well that ends well, and the $400M that this heist yields is generously divided among the employees of the company whose wealth and retirement funds were tied to the now-worthless company stock, so that they again get to drive in fancy cars and live in the lap of luxury. Of course, since this company never actually produced any real wealth in the first place, one has to wonder where that $400M originally came from, since it didn't just magically appear by itself when the company was founded. Do the people who invested that money to the now-worthless company stock perhaps get it back? Perish the thought. We haven't seen these faceless people but we have seen the employees, so therefore the latter group is obviously more deserving of this money. Caveat emptor, as the old wisdom goes.
(Of course, all publicity interviews are just as scripted as the movie itself --- when I was younger and didn't quite realize this, I kind of wondered how come in every based-on-a-true-story movie the star had always admired the main character and had always considered the topic of the movie to be very important so that he is currently very concerned about it and wanted to make this movie for that reason.)
After the hero and his wife have lost their jobs because the rich evil CEO (but I repeat myself), whose similarities to George W. Bush are not exactly shall we say subtle, has financially looted the Enron-style company where the hero has just been promoted to management, they quickly lose their financial resources and have to live hand to mouth in a fancy house that quickly loses all its furniture. Obviously, these people are not the proverbial "millionaires next door". But you have to keep up appearances for the neighbours, one of whom is played by Richard Burgi, which is itself alway funny these days. Unfortunately, his character's last name is not "Jones": some writer there missed an opportunity.
Before he unexpectedly loses his job, Carrey's newly-promoted character is sent on a TV's financial newsmagazine where the host asks him about the new revelations about the company being worthless. His inability to answer this question sends the company's stock price into a downward spiral so that its price falls to zero in what must have been less than a minute. Myself, I had no idea stock prices were this precarious. Perhaps some more shrewd investor whose ethics are not as high as mine could come up with a scheme to make money with this. I have also never been able to really understand what difference the stock price makes in some corporation's operations, since that stock has already been sold, but I admit being somewhat of a financial illiterate. When Carrey's character comes back from the interview, the whole company is in shambles. Speed of modern life sure his hectic.
Once it has been comically established that all physical work is for losers and totally beneath Carrey's character, whereas the wife has been initially established as a more likable and down-to-earth person with a real and concrete job that she gives up after hearing about her husband's promotion, many clever script tricks are needed to make Carrey's character and his feelings of entitlement acceptable for the mainstream audience. I somehow kind of doubt that most viewers naturally sympathize with him and feel his pain of not being able to buy a new Mercedes every year. As an aside, I didn't quite understand why it was necessary to load one towering plate full of food in an all-you-can-eat restaurant: wouldn't you be allowed to go for seconds? Or do the restaurants in the Southern parts of the USA perhaps operate differently in this respect? Anything is possible.
When Carrey's character eventually swallows his pride and agrees to do physical work for a pittance, it's a good thing that in addition to evil and selfish white people who have caused the whole mess, there are also warm, kind and friendly Mexicans who accept him and help him. Unfortunately, the evil jackbooted border guards constantly harass and oppress these hardworking people with nazi-style swoops where they demand to see everybody's papers, and immediately deport those who have no papers. Just like in the real life. I have to wonder why Americans, who are so famously freedom- and justice-loving and a beacon to the whole world in this, tolerate such antics in their own country. Hopefully this movie will help raise awareness of this issue and force the government to end such policies. And it is only natural and morally justified that Carrey's character, after seeing such inhuman and cruel policy enacted firsthand, soon helps a whole carload of illegal immigrants to cross the border. The effect that this little stunt has on the availability of physical work and the salary that it pays is never examined further in this movie, though. This is bit of a shame, since I'm sure the moviemakers could have come up with some kind of a social message.
As should be obvious from the trailer, after the story has slogged for an hour or so (at least it freaking felt like an hour), Carrey's character finally snaps and starts striking back at society that has oppressed him so long and denies him his rightful place in it. He does this by robbing people and various places of business in comical armed heists, during which Carrey finally gets to perform his signature facial, bodily and vocal contortions. After a very close call of almost getting caught in a heist where another white middle-class couple that has chosen the same survival strategy of crime serves as the sacrificial lambs to pay for their crimes, the funloving couple decides to give up such crimes and instead pull one large and precariously tricky heist on the evil CEO himself, with the aid of the company's second-in-command who is disillusioned and in pangs of conscience.
Many things go wrong but all is well that ends well, and the $400M that this heist yields is generously divided among the employees of the company whose wealth and retirement funds were tied to the now-worthless company stock, so that they again get to drive in fancy cars and live in the lap of luxury. Of course, since this company never actually produced any real wealth in the first place, one has to wonder where that $400M originally came from, since it didn't just magically appear by itself when the company was founded. Do the people who invested that money to the now-worthless company stock perhaps get it back? Perish the thought. We haven't seen these faceless people but we have seen the employees, so therefore the latter group is obviously more deserving of this money. Caveat emptor, as the old wisdom goes.
Did you notice that the founder of Greenpeace has changed his mind on nuclear power?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401209.html
Posted by Anonymous | 10:19 AM
I have also never been able to really understand what difference the stock price makes in some corporation's operations, since that stock has already been sold
There are many reasons why stock price makes a difference to operations, one of which would be debt covenents. The stock price is a measure of a corporation's equity, so the higher the equiy for a given level of debt, the lower the debt:equity ratio. If the stock price falls then the lowered amount of equity may initiate a call from the debt holders to lower the debt to a debt:equity ratio permitted by the loan restrictions.
Posted by TangoMan | 6:50 PM