Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

A film that needs no introduction… For those under the age of 35 it is hard to imagine a world before Jim Carrey. As someone born in 1986, I can scarcely remember it myself, but I remember enough to recall the seismic impact Jim Carrey’s career had on the moviegoing public in the 90’s. In discussion amongst movie fans there was no more imitated and discussed name in comedy than Jim Carrey, and ground zero was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The eponymous character has so entered the popular conscience that the sheer riskiness of its boldly over-the-top physical comedy seems very commonplace now. There was a time when the phrase, “alrighty then” was simply, “alrighty then.” It took the unique comedic genius of Jim Carrey to read that line on a page and then deliver it in a way where we can never hear that phrase the same again. The movie rightly belongs here in South Florida, for in spite of, or perhaps because of, its over-the-top flair and heightened reality, few films feel so quintessentially Floridian. The eclectic cast of characters is also one of its many joys, a rondelet of oddballs and eccentrics that all feel uniquely born of the sunshine state. Not least of which is Udo Kier in one of his first American roles as the eccentric millionaire Ron Camp, who strikes pitch perfect authenticity with his light limp and high mannered speaking, illustrating Kier’s unique ability to somehow channel Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt into the same character. He finds an endearing, light comedic touch in his usual mixture of baroque and bizarre.  It’s just one highlight in a film full of them, and we can’t forget Ace himself, cut from a uniquely Floridian cloth. Looking back, you might even call him the original “Florida Man.”