Fun with Dick and Jane

What appeared on paper to be vanilla banter turned out to be a nicely biting, albeit not quite entirely rhythmically refined satire. Two well-off members of the middle class are confronted for the first time with a system that hasn’t yet caused them any bother and because they have no intention of living below their station in life, they set out on the path of Bonnie and Clyde. Unlike that pair of proletarian outlaw lovers, however, they have no idea how things work in the world of the working class and short-term concerns, and the film derives most of its humour from that. As in the case of Bonnie and Clyde, the start of Dick and Jane’s criminal career is subconsciously driven by sexuality. Crime has the effect of a defibrillator on their languishing love life. Dick reaffirms his masculinity with a gun, which he always keeps concealed somewhere in his crotch. As evidenced by the excellent scene involving the purchase of condoms, his embarrassment before the first robbery is a reminder of his insecurity before his first sexual experience. In order to give his rapidly cooling marriage the passion that it once had, he has to again take on the traditional role of breadwinner, though this time in a roundabout way, and start to come up with money by alternative means. As a criminal, he gradually transforms from a dull conservative into a man open to the most bizarre impulses. His ability to regain a management position depends on his reckless conduct outside the law, which we can see as caustic commentary on the transitional period between the hippie and yuppie eras. 70% (05/12/2015)

George Segal and Jane Fonda were quite good together in this comedy and I have to say I enjoyed them even more than Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni, and I like Jim a lot. There is not that much overacting; everything just flows nicely, but at the same time, it's entertaining, and there are some great offbeat scenes. These older films simply get to me. It’s still topical, by the way. (08/10/2016)