Liar Liar

The father of five-year-old Max has missed one too many special occasions through alleged overwork, so when he's not there to see his son blow out the candles, a birthday wish lays down the gauntlet - daddy has to stop telling lies for one day. Since dad's in the legal profession, this obviously complicates matters, but, this being a Jim Carrey vehicle, it also provides the springboard for the usual panoply of elastic twitchery and broad knockabout. The first third of the movie pitches Carrey's aspiring attorney into professional anxieties over a career-making case, the second unleashes a 24-hour truth spell, and the rest is spent on a fairly predictable resolution. Pretty rudimentary, but it keeps Carrey's occasional over-exuberance in check and delivers likeable, effective, but decidedly mainstream comedy.