Liar Liar

Movie added on: December 17, 2008

Liar Liar is a 1997 American comedy film written by Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. Carrey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award (1998) for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical. The film is the second of three collaborations between Jim Carrey and Tom Shadyac, the first being Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and the third being Bruce Almighty, and the second of three collaborations between Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur, the first being The Little Rascals and the third being Heartbreakers. It was shot entirely in California.

Director:Tom Shadyac
Release Date:21 March 1997
Genre:Comedy | Fantasy
Tagline:Trust Me
Runtime:86 min

Cast

Jim Carrey : Fletcher Reede
Maura Tierney : Audrey Reede
Justin Cooper : Max Reede
Cary Elwes : Jerry
Anne Haney : Greta

Fletcher Reede (Jim Carrey) is a particularly career-focused lawyer and divorced father. He has a habit of giving precedence to his job, breaking promises to his young son Max, and then lying to both Max (Justin Cooper) and his ex-wife Audrey (Maura Tierney) about the real reason for having done so. Ultimately, Fletcher misses his son’s birthday party because he is having sex with his boss Miranda (Amanda Donohoe), and Max wishes while blowing out his cake candles that his father be unable to lie for an entire day, a wish that immediately becomes true.

Fletcher soon discovers, through a series of embarrassing incidents, that he is unable to lie or even withhold a true answer. These incidents are inconvenient, as he is fighting a divorce case in court which, should he win, could be a huge boost to his career. His client is Samantha Cole (Jennifer Tilly). His main witness is willing to commit perjury to win, but Fletcher discovers that he cannot even ask a question if he knows the answer will be a lie. Meanwhile, Audrey is threatening to move to Boston with her new boyfriend Jerry (Cary Elwes) and to take Max with them.

Over the course of the film, Fletcher recognizes his son Max as his highest priority and struggles to keep him. He manages to win the case truthfully by using a loophole in the law (namely that his client had lied about her age and was 17 when she signed the prenuptial agreement), with the repercussions being a major catalyst to his understanding of what he is likely to lose. When he sees the results of winning the case (the mother of the children will fight for custody also and literally pulls them out of their father’s arms), he shouts at the judge (Jason Bernard) and is put into jail for contempt of court. Audrey refuses to pay his bail, which is eventually paid by his secretary Greta (Anne Haney).Read more

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Liar Liar Trivia

The film is dedicated to Jason Bernard who played his last role in this film and shortly after died of a heart attack.
Jason Bernard also appeared in All of Me (1984), another movie about a lawyer who’s redeemed by supernatural intervention.
As an in-joke, director Tom Shadyac had Jim Carrey dress up as Fire Marshall Bill, a character Carrey originally portrayed in the TV series “In Living Color” (1990). You can spot him in the background of the final rescue scene at the airport.
Max’s teacher is reading to her class a story from Dr. Seuss “Green Eggs and Ham”. Jim Carrey has played the Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), and Horton in Horton Hears a Who! (2008), both Dr. Seuss stories.
When Max asks his father, “If I keep making this face, will it get stuck that way?”, and Fletcher replies, “No. In fact, some people make a good living that way”, he was obviously referring to himself.
One Trailer included moments from a deleted opening scene in which Fletcher unscrupulously defends an obviously guilty Mr. Skull against a terrified old man in court. Skull’s actor, Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb is the same who beat up Jim Carrey’s car in the beginning of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), also directed by Tom Shadyac.
The 18 April 1996 draft of the screenplay credits Mike Binder as a writer.
Jim Carrey declined the role of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) so he could be committed to this film.
Steve Martin turned down the lead role in this film due to scheduling conflicts with another film.
Jim Carrey says “How could I forget !” to Mrs. Cole and Kenneth Falk outside the courtroom when discussing the testimonial. He said the same thing as Edward Nygma in Batman Forever (1995) to Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) when she asks if he remembers her.

Liar Liar Mistakes

When Fletcher is beating himself up he goes into a stall and squishes his head with a toilet seat. You can see that the white part underneath is made out of foam because it keeps squashing down.
In the scene where Fletcher is in jail and talking to his ex-wife and he is yanked off screen by a guard. If you look into the reflection in the window of the door behind him you can see him and the guard bump into the wall off screen.
In the scene where Audrey is in the mini-van with Max, she has her seat belt on, then the camera cuts to Max, and when it returns to Audrey with her seat belt off.
When Fletcher is attempting to force himself to write the word “red” on his desk, in the shot before the “blue” is revealed, his pen is not even touching the desk and his final pen movement is a curve which doesn’t correspond to an exclamation point.
In the scene where Fletcher is in his office and he’s trying to write that the pen isn’t blue, he swipes everything from his desk and there’s then an overhead shot showing the only thing left on his desk is a small piece of white paper on the right hand side. A few seconds later the piece of paper has disappeared and has instead been replaced by what looks like a drinking straw.
When Fletcher moves underneath the wing of the plane on his flight of stairs, another plane is seen in front of him. It disappears when the pilot sees the shoe land on the windscreen. There is also no sign of the barrier and luggage area that he crashes into a few seconds later.
When Fletcher proves his client was underage at the time of the prenup making it void he also proved she was underage when signing the marriage license. This was previously corrected by stating “An underage person has a certain amount of time to invalidate a contract once the person turns 18 after which it then becomes valid”. So fair enough – the marriage then becomes valid as they were married for longer than this period. However under the same law the pre nup would ALSO become valid at such time, making it a valid contract.
Towards the end, Fletcher is on the stretcher talking to Max, and looks at his watch to discover he has been able to lie for half an hour. Max then responds “So you lied?”. Fletcher then grabs Max’s shoulder with his left hand, saying “No! It was the truth!”. As the angle changes he is still speaking, but his left hand is now lying across his chest before he reaches out to grab Max again.
Just before Fletcher steers his flight of stairs under the wing of the plane, there is a shot taken from underneath the wing of the plane and you can tell by looking at the runway markings that the plane is suddenly barely moving, it appears to be moving about 5 miles per hour compared to about 30 miles per hour in previous shots.

Liar Liar Quotes

Max: My dad? He’s… a liar.
Teacher: A liar? I’m sure you don’t mean a liar.
Max: Well, he wears a suit and goes to court and talks to the judge.
Teacher: Oh, you mean he’s a lawyer.
Max: Do the claw to mom, dad, do the claw to mom!
Fletcher: Uh-oh. You’ve found the claw’s only weakness. Subzero temperatures.
Audrey: So did you have any trouble finding the place?
Fletcher: All right, I’m late. I ran oughta gas! The gage is broken. Rough neighborhood too. Good thing I was wearing neutral gang colors. Might’ve had to rip out my nine and bust a cap! My mind on my money and my money on my mind!
Audrey: They’d never hurt you, Fletcher. You’re their lawyer.
Fletcher: Ooh. That was below the belt. Try to keep the gloves up.
Max: Mom, Dad’s taking me to see wrestling!
Audrey: Ugh. Fletcher!
Fletcher: Ugh. Audrey!
Fletcher: I was hoping after being married to me you’d have no more strength left.
Audrey: Well, you have to remember that when we were married, I wasn’t having sex nearly as often as you were.
Max: [thought voice-over] I wish that for just one day, Dad couldn’t tell a lie.
Miranda: [after sex] Ummm, that was incredible. Was it good for you?
Fletcher: I’ve had better.
Bum: Got any spare change?
Fletcher: Absolutely!
Bum: Well, could ya spare some?
Fletcher: Yes I could!
Bum: Will you?
Fletcher: [shakes head] Uh-mm!
Bum: How come?
Fletcher: Because I believe you will buy booze with it! I just want to get from my car to the office without being confronted by the decay of Western society!… Plus I’m cheap! AHHH!
Max: If I keep making this face… will it get stuck that way?
Fletcher: Uh uh. As a matter of fact, some people make a very good living that way.