Liar Liar

Name: Liar Liar

Directed by: Tom Shadyac

Written by: Paul Guay Stephen Mazur

Produced by: Brian Grazer

Executive Producers: Michael Bostick James D. Brubaker

Director of Photography: Russell Boyd

Production Designer: Linda DeScenna

Film Editing by: Don Zimmerman

Score Composed and Conducted by: John Debney

Studio: Pixar Animation Studios

Production Company: Imagine Entertainment

Producer/Release: 20th Century Fox

Airdate: March 21, 1997

Length: 86 minutes, 40 seconds

Budget: $45 million

Box Office: $302.7 million

Pixar Movie Number: 112

Liar Liar is the 112th Pixar film directed by Tom Shadyac, written by Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur and starring Jim Carrey.

Plot
In Los Angeles, career-focused lawyer Fletcher Reede (Carrey) loves his son Max (Cooper), but his inability to keep his promises and the compulsive lying he engages in for his career often cause problems between them and with his ex-wife Audrey (Tierney), who has become involved with another man named Jerry (Elwes). In court, Fletcher is willing to exaggerate the stories of his clients, and his current client, the self-centered, money-grabbing Samantha Cole (Tilly) has garnered the attention of Mr. Allen (Ryan), a partner at the law firm in which Fletcher works. If Fletcher wins this case, it will bring his firm a fortune and boost his career. Fletcher calls and lies to Audrey about missing Max's birthday due to work, when he is actually having sex with his boss, Miranda, in order to get a promotion. Dejected, Max makes a birthday wish that for one day his father cannot tell a lie. The wish immediately comes true, and Fletcher unwittingly tells Miranda he has "had better."

The following day, Fletcher immediately realizes that he is unable to do anything dishonest. He cannot lie, mislead, or even deceive by withholding a true answer, and often uncontrollably blurts out vulgar and painful truths that anger his co-workers. His car is impounded after confessing his many moving violations and unpaid parking tickets to a police officer. This comes to a head when he realizes that he is unable to even ask questions when he knows the answer will be a lie, which is inconvenient as Samantha and her alleged affair partner Kenneth Faulk (Mayer) are willing to commit perjury to win the high-profile case and he cannot ask him the questions they have been given answers for. Realizing that Max had wished for this to happen, Fletcher tries to convince him that adults need to lie, but he cannot give any type of answer as to why he should continue to lie to his son. Fletcher also figures out that since Max wished for him to tell the truth for only one day, he tries to do what he can to delay Samantha's case since the magic wish will expire at 8:15 p.m., 24 hours after Max made the wish. Things only get worse for Fletcher as he loses his loyal assistant Greta (Haney) after admitting he had lied about the miserly reasons for denying her pay raises and the "expensive" gifts he gave her, and Audrey tells Fletcher that she and Max are moving to Boston with Jerry in order to prevent any more heartbreaks from Fletcher's broken promises.

Fletcher's erratic behavior in court leads to several questions of his sanity as he objects to himself and badgers and provokes his own witnesses into admitting they had an affair against Samantha and her husband's prenuptial agreement. He even goes so far as to beat himself up in a bathroom and claim that someone attacked him in order to try and avoid the case (not strictly lying as he describes his attacker as a madman with a vague description that still matches him), but when asked if he feels like he can continue, he can't deny it and he says yes. During the case, Fletcher finds a technicality that Samantha lied that she was underage when she signed the prenup prior to her marriage, rendering it void and entitling her to half of Mr. Cole's estate, allowing him to win the case truthfully. But when Samantha decides to contest full custody of their children, who Mr. Cole dearly loves, just because she wants more money from the child support payments, Fletcher regrets mentioning the technicality after seeing Mrs. Cole pull the children out of their father's arms, and shriek her demands for more money. Realizing now that winning the case has punished the loving husband and rewarded the cheating wife, Fletcher has a crisis of conscience and shouts at the Judge demanding that he reverse the decision, but he is arrested for contempt of court. He calls Audrey from the prison's phone and begs her to bail him out and give him another chance, but she hangs up on him.

Greta returns and bails Fletcher from jail. She forgives him. Realizing that telling the truth has made him a better man, he rushes to the airport to stop Audrey and Max from leaving forever. He misses their flight, but sneaks onto the tarmac by hiding in a piece of luggage, steals a motorized staircase, and manages to gain the pilot's attention by throwing his shoe at the cockpit window, forcing him to abort the flight. However, Fletcher's victory is cut short when he crashes into a barrier and is sent flying into a baggage tug, which causes a chain reaction that leaves Fletcher unconscious and with both of his legs broken. After waking up, he tells Max how much he cares about him and how sorry he was for breaking his promises. Despite no longer being under the wish's influence, Fletcher means what he says and adds that Max is his priority, and Max convinces Audrey to stay in Los Angeles.

One year later, Fletcher is healed and is running his own law firm with Greta as his continued assistant. Max makes a wish with his birthday cake and the lights come on to reveal Fletcher and Audrey kissing, but explains he wished for rollerblades instead of them reconciling. Fletcher clutches his hands into "The Claw" - a game he likes to play with Max by chasing him - and chases him and Audrey around the house with it.

Cast

 * Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reede
 * Maura Tierney as Audrey Reede
 * Justin Cooper as Max Reede
 * Jennifer Tilly as Samantha Cole
 * Amanda Donohoe as Miranda
 * Jason Bernard as Judge Marshall Stevens
 * Cary Elwes as Jerry
 * Swoosie Kurtz as Dana Appleton
 * Anne Haney as Greta
 * Eric Pierpoint as Richard Cole
 * Christopher Mayer as Kenneth Falk
 * Mitchell Ryan as Mr. Allan
 * Cheri Oteri as Jane
 * Marianne Muellerleile as Mrs. Berry
 * Krista Allen as woman in elevator
 * Don Keefer as Beggar at Courthouse

Liar Liar was the film debut of actress Sara Paxton, who played one of Max's classmates and his birthday party attendant. It was also the last film to feature Don Keefer and Jason Bernard, who died shortly after filming was completed. The film was dedicated in Bernard's memory.

Media Release

 * Liar Liar is released on VHS September 30, 1997 and released on DVD January 20, 1998.

DVD Movie Menu
Liar Liar/DVD Menu

Play the Movie

 * Play

Bonus Materials

 * Bridging the Comedy Chasm
 * Feature Commentary with Director Tom Shadyac
 * Deleted Scene
 * Photo Gallery

Chapter Selection

 * 1) Main Title: My Dad's a Liar (0:00:00-0:13:55)
 * 2) An Attorney You Can Trust (0:13:55-0:19:02)
 * 3) Max's Big Wish (0:19:02-0:20:24)
 * 4) Truth (0:20:24-0:22:43)
 * 5) ...and Consequences (0:22:43-0:26:48)
 * 6) The Awful Truth (0:26:48-0:33:13)
 * 7) Up the Tailpipe (0:33:13-0:38:19)
 * 8) The Un-Wish (0:38:19-0:42:13)
 * 9) The Truths Hurts (0:42:13-0:46:04)
 * 10) A Little Irreverence (0:46:04-0:49:37)
 * 11) Courting Disaster (0:49:37-0:53:23)
 * 12) A Desperate Fool (0:53:23-0:57:20)
 * 13) Nothing But the Truth (0:57:20-1:11:20)
 * 14) Fletcher Takes Flight (1:11:20-1:16:17)
 * 15) The Real Dope (1:16:17-1:20:53)
 * 16) End Credits (1:20:53-1:26:40)

Language Selection

 * English
 * Français
 * Français (Dubbed in Québec)
 * Español Latino
 * Castellano
 * Italiano
 * Português (Dubbed in Brasileiro)
 * עברית
 * Magyar
 * Dansk
 * Ελληνικά
 * Nederlands
 * Polski
 * Türkçe
 * Deutsch
 * Čeština
 * Hrvatski
 * Slovenský
 * Slovenčina
 * Vlaams
 * 日本語
 * فارسی
 * Eesti
 * Norsk
 * Svenska
 * Suomi
 * 한국어
 * Íslenska
 * Русский
 * Lietuviškas
 * Српски
 * Українська
 * Català
 * Captions
 * English (Captioned for the Hearing Impaired)
 * Français
 * Español (Captioned for the Spanish Dubbing)
 * Português (Captioned for the Brazilian Dubbing)

VHS Previews

 * Half Baked Trailer (In Theaters January 1998)
 * The Truman Show Theatrical Trailer (In Theaters June 1998)
 * Antz Trailer (In Theaters October 1998)

DVD Previews

 * Half Baked Trailer (Only In Theaters)
 * The Truman Show Theatrical Trailer (In Theaters June 5)
 * Antz Trailer (In Theaters October 2)