Starring: Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Angela Lansbury
Director: Mark Waters
Category: I
Ten years ago Jim Carrey seemed to have finally left his face-contorting comedic shtick behind with a flurry of dramatic roles that include the media satire The Truman Show and Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon. The actor was also cast in 2001's The Majestic, about a Hollywood writer who is blacklisted for flirting with communism in 1950s America.
So, for a time, it seemed he didn't need to gurn his way through a role anymore.
Fast forward to 2011 and those hopes have somehow dissipated. While Carrey (above) still springs the odd surprise now and then - such as the 2009 gay-romance-caper I Love You Phillip Morris - the actor now seems to be making variations of a single premise, that being the story of a misanthropist atoning for his miserly misdeeds and learning to be human again. In this light, Mr Popper's Penguins could be seen as a reworking of Carrey's work in How the Grinch Stole Christmas or A Christmas Carol.
What's despairing about Popper, however, is how banal and inoffensive it is when compared to the source material, a children's novel from 1938.
Here, Carrey's 2011 take on Ebenezer Scrooge is Tom Popper, a manipulative real estate broker who spends most of his time sweet-talking people into selling their beloved ancestral properties - a loathsome trait that has also led to the breakdown of his marriage and relationship with his children.