Many years ago one of the film reviewers from my town was talking about Hollywood's practice of giving insane amounts of money to certain stars for a single role. He defended the decision of Columbia Pictures to award Jim Carrey with 20 million US$ for his appearance in 1996 comedy The Cable Guy. He said that whatever Carrey had touched in the past had turned into gold. But in The Cable Guy Jim Carrey's magic disappeared and it was his first major commercial setback.
The nominal protagonist of the film is an architect Steven Kovacs (played by Matthew Broderick). He has just broken up with his girlfriend Robin Harris (played by Leslie Mann) and moved into new flat. Problems with cable television force him to call for the services of technician Chip Douglas (played by Jim Carrey) who offers 50 US$ for additional "free" set of channels. Steven agrees, not knowing that the real price is going to be higher than he has imagined. Chip mistakes his kindness for genuine friendship and tries to hang out with him. At first Steven tolerates his new and eccentric acquaintance, particularly after Chip's advice helps him to patch up relationship with Robin. But through time Chip turns from friend into intimidating stalker and when his friendship is rejected, he decides to turn Steven's life into living hell.
Critics usually explained failure of The Cable Guy with American audience's unwillingness to accept what was supposed to be the best thing about this film – Jim Carrey's ability to play character different from the simple clowns in his earlier, light hearted films. The Cable Guy goes towards the dark and, for the audience at the time, unfamiliar territory of pitch-black comedy. People simply couldn't accept Carrey as clown who turns into monster. But the real issue with The Cable Guy is that it made point which is somewhat too serious for 1990s American comedy - character of Chip was made into monster by television and the script asserts that anyone who spends time in front of TV set and takes whatever goes on screen too seriously can become monster or at least indirectly lead to some misguided, unloved soul turning into one. Indirectly, The Cable Guy accused media industry, including Hollywood, for sad state of social values and finger is indirectly pointed even towards the people who flock to the theatre to watch Jim Carrey. That form of criticism was something people, whether they saw it or noticed it subconsciously, couldn't tolerate.
Whatever the hidden layers beneath the dark plot, The Cable Guy is handled very well as a black comedy. Jim Carrey simply shines in this difficult and risky role that could have destroyed his career. Unfortunately, Matthew Broderick is bland and rather forgettable in his role of a "normal" man the audience should identify with. Director Ben Stiller (who would later shine in front of camera in There's Something About Mary and Zoolander) handles the film very well, staging some incredibly funny and effective scenes. On the other hand, script by Lou Holtz Jr. leaves much to be desired, especially in the melodramatic ending. But general impression of the film is positive and the later generations would probably have much better opinion of The Cable Guy than its contemporaries.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on May 8th 2003)
==
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7