DAMN. Jerry Orbach died. Rest in peace, El Gallo.

Another reason I love Betsy: her association with Jerry Orbach is my association.

"Try to remember, and if you remember, then follow..."

Tep, Matt, unfortunately, yes. You may have to skip Unfortunate Events, as even Carrey's multiple deaths are horribly shticky and just make you want to smack his corpse with a cattle prod.

However, if you can manage to find someone who's already seen it, and seen it enough times to warn you of his imminent appearance onscreen, and you sit in an aisle seat so you can duck out when warned, the Carrey-free parts of the movie are exquisite. The kids rock. Billy Connolly and his albino snakes rock. The three-eyed toad rocks. Meryl Streep is fabulous. The cozy/busy/ramshackle/bright yet oddly menacing set design and the closing credits will make Matt sing graphic artist hosannas.

Alternatively, if you can manage the admittedly difficult trick of mentally recasting the film as you watch it and replace every instance of Jim Carrey with, say, Alan Rickman, you'll be able not only to endure the whole thing but to drink it up with considerable pleasure.

Carrey is vile. Hec is wrong like a wrong thing -- he wasn't fine, he was ANTIfine. He threw the whole thing out of balance by being too big and by NOT FUCKING ACTING, THAT ASSHEAD. It was comic villain shtick, when everyone around him was being real, and it so didn't work.

I never, for a single second he was onscreen, believed that he was anyone but Jim Carrey, or that he actually hated these three children and wanted to murder them. Which is, admittedly, a dark and scary thing to ask of an actor, but it's the whole goddamn point of the role. When he was offscreen, I was totally happy to loathe and fear him just as the Baudelaire children did, because their performances were amazing and simple and true, and I was fully invested in them and fully prepared to love or hate anyone they loved or hated... but when he was onscreen - feh. And it is not a good thing when a would-be child murdering villain is more menacing when the extremely highly-paid actor playing him is nowhere in sight.

And if I were teaching acting classes, I would totally make my students watch an Olaf scene, an Aunt Josephine scene, and their scene together. Meryl Streep was so damn funny, because she wasn't for a second trying to be funny; she was just losing herself in being Aunt Josephine, and it so happened that Aunt Josephine's phobias and fluttering and absent-minded doting on the children were screamingly funny, but it really just so happened. And in contrast, Carrey's Olaf, however actually funny he was, would have been one fuck of a lot funnier if Carrey had actually trusted the script, the director, the costumer, and his own instincts and just PLAYED OLAF instead of mugging for laughs.

God, I fucking hated him. And I've loved him in Eternal Sunshine and Truman Show and even The Mask, where the Max Fleischer-y Mask is a deliberate id-rampant antithesis to his sweetly grave and earnest human self. He can act, and he can even be genuinely funny (and a thousand times more interesting) when he does. It makes me fucking nuts when he chooses not to.

In other news, I need every one of Violet's costumes, but particularly the coats. I'm quite certain Jilli will need them all too. Coats that drape properly and look stylish over hoop skirts are all-too-rare commodities in this hoopless world.

He threw the whole thing out of balance by being too big and by NOT FUCKING ACTING, THAT ASSHEAD.

I never, for a single second he was onscreen, believed that he was anyone but Jim Carrey

Ah, you've confirmed for me that I would rather sit through Magnolia again than see Lemony Snicket. Because what you just described is what I see in every movie of his that I've ever seen. (Though, to be fair, I haven't seen Eternal Sunshine yet.)

He's just so explosive and bombastic and attention-whoring, and to me it smacks of a needy greedy "Look at me! LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEE!" impulse.

And that just ain't acting.

I"m not a Carrey fan, but in the wedding part he was genuinely creepy. I got the feeling that Violet wasn't going to be long for this world once that went through. Granted, on the whole he was slapstick rather than evil, but he does that well.

Aunt Josephine's house slowly falling apart around them was truly scary. And when Olaf/Carrey slowly pushed Josephine's boat away, and you *knew* what was going to happen to her, that was delightfully evil.

If you despise Carrey, you'll want a good parts version. If you are willing to give him a chance, it's a very uneven performance if you want evil, but he can do creepy very nicely.

And I've loved him in Eternal Sunshine and Truman Show and even The Mask, where the Max Fleischer-y Mask is a deliberate id-rampant antithesis to his sweetly grave and earnest human self. He can act, and he can even be genuinely funny (and a thousand times more interesting) when he does. It makes me fucking nuts when he chooses not to.

My guess? He was encouraged to go OTT by the director, because, well, that's why we hired him. I mean yes, there is an onus on the actor to reign themselves in, but I can also see getting caught up in the moment on-set and just running with it (and, apparently, running and running and running).

Because what you just described is what I see in every movie of his that I've ever seen. (Though, to be fair, I haven't seen Eternal Sunshine yet.)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE is not just a good Jim Carrey performance, but a good performance period, IMHO. However, I also thought the same about THE TRUMAN SHOW and MAN IN THE MOON (the latter, admittedly playing someone who was OTT and hard to take in real life, but what a stunning impersonation), so take that as a guideline (warning?) if you saw either of those and felt that way about him there.

The only way I can bear living in a world where Jim Carrey is as popular and loved by the masses as he is is mentally picturing Lauren Holly wearing diamonds and a mink coat, stretched out on a bed covered in $100 bills, saying "thank God for California's community property laws!"

Bah. I actually generally like Carrey, and I loathed him here. Not creepy, not evil. Obviously, YCMV.

My favorite Carrey movie is The Cable Guy. Creepy/funny movie. But it was so long ago that I saw it I wonder if I'd feel the same way now about it....

My guess? He was encouraged to go OTT by the director, because, well, that's why we hired him.

I think the opposite -- the director failed to reign him in, and so he went with his natural comic instincts. (Which is ALWAYS a mistake, IMO. If you listen to Michel Gondry talk about the rehearsal process for Eternal Sunshine, it's pretty clear that his goal was to wear Carrey out as much as possible so that his performance would be toned down from exhaustion. Jim Carrey is capable of very good acting, but it doesn't come naturally. He needs to be directed.)