Released on 23 June 2000 in the US, ‘Me Myself And Irene’ is a black comedy film where a cop named Charlie (played by Jim Carrey) must protect a lady named Irene from her corrupt ex-boyfriend and his guys. Meanwhile, he must also deal with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) which takes charge in unfavorable situations.
The 116-minute-long movie has 20th Century Fox as the distributor. It is directed, produced, and written by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter Farrelly. They have done eleven films together, including this one. The third writer is Mike Cerrone, and the third producer for this film is Bradley Thomas.
The main cast includes Renée Zellweger, Jim Carrey, Anthony Anderson, Robert Forster, Daniel Greene, Richard Jenkins, Jerod Mixon, and Chris Cooper. It is Jim Carrey’s second film with the Farrelly brothers and first with 20th Century Fox.
DID is wrongly depicted in this movie. It was only a joke for the makers but not for the Americans, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). So, NAMI had asked the filmmakers to make Jim Carrey clear the picture during the promotion.
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Me, Myself & Irene Story Breakdown
Me, Myself and Irene is a hilarious film that one cannot forget. Charlie Baileygates, a Rhode Island State Police trooper, is married to Layla. She cheats him with a black dwarf named Shonte. Charlie’s friends inform him that he is not the biological father of his three kids. They do not even possess his skin color. But, he ignores all information and signs. One day, Layla runs away with Shonte leaving the kids behind. However, he looks after them with great affection.
Charlie gets respected by the kids but not by the town. People abuse him and consider him weak. Over the years, his children get overweight and foul-mouthed due to the wrong comedy shows. Even his friends and neighboring continue to insult him. It gives birth to another personality named Hank Evans, who appears during difficult situations.
On the one hand, Charlie is a nice and calm guy. On the other hand, Hank is short-tempered, rude, and outrageous. Hank starts punishing the people who abuse Charlie. Charlie ends up getting caught by his co-workers. According to Colonel Partington’s suggestion, he visits a psychiatrist who informs him about his Dissociative Identity Disorder and prescribes medicines to conquer Hank.
Charlie’s commanding officer Col. Partington orders him to protect Irene Waters had the allegations of hit and run. Irene’s ex-boyfriend Dickie had committed the crime and blamed her for stopping her from revealing his illegal activities. Charlie hands Irene to the EPA agents.
The assassins ordered to kill Irene to kill the EPA agents. Charlie and Irene run away. Meanwhile, Charlie unnecessarily gets accused of murder. The problem arises when Hank keeps appearing at anytime because Charlie forgot his medicines while running away. The media spreads the news, and Charlie’s children get informed about the incident.
Charlie starts getting closer to Irene. On the other hand, Hank keeps scaring her in between. An albino waiter named ‘Whitey’ joins them on the way. But they leave her in the motel and board the train to Rhode Island. Dickie, present on the same train, kidnaps Irene and takes her to a bridge. However, Charlie finds them and gets his thumb shot off while choking Dickie.
Meanwhile, Whitey kills Dickie by throwing a lawn dart at him, but Charlie and Irene fall off the bridge into the river. They get rescued by Charlie’s children. Irene and Charlie get cleared of all charges. Later, the cops arrest Irene on her way to let Charlie propose to her. Meanwhile, Whitey searches for Charlie’s thumb in the river and gets nothing.
Me, Myself & Irene Filming Locations
Several scenes were shot in Vermont, Burlington, Waterbury, Rhode Island, and Williston. Charlie’s house is shown in Narragansett Bay. But it is located in the village of Galilee. It turned into a bigger house according to its redevelopment in 2004. Layla and Charlie married in the St John Church on Washington Street in Newport. The police station was shown in a Town Hall in Vermont. The hotel is in Burlington. Charlie and Irene leave Rhode Island and start the road trip to Vermont.
Essex Junction, located in the heart of Chittenden County, was used to shoot the gas station in Vermont. Irene gets abducted there. She and Charlie leave the car and pass by the Ben And Jerry’s Ice-Cream factory in Waterbury. Narragansett Avenue shows the local main street and ‘Freddie The Barber.’ One will find the Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center instead of the dilapidated Victorian buildings.
The restaurants and café shown in this film are located in Richmond. Dickie shoots off Charlie’s thumb on the Otter Creek Footbridge at Middlebury. It is the longest creek in Vermont. Hank and Charlie fight the train that takes them to the ‘Providence’ station. It is the ‘Union Station’ in Burlington instead of Rhode Island. Then, he gets the car on Burlington’s Main Street. Charlie shoots and beats a cow (that is not real) at Johnson in Vermont.
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