This is one of the better dark comedies out there. Carrey's cableguy is intriguing and creepy in a very Hitchcockian way -- he's just enough like someone you know to be very unsettling.
The movie comes to a point where it must decide what it's going to be, and unfortunately director Ben Stiller tries to go both directions, leaving both not adequately explored. The movie begins as the story of two lonely people - the cableguy, who tries to cure his loneliness by being your best friend 24-7, and the average lonely guy played by Broderick who deals with life and relationships in the average American way. The movie then rapidly becomes a satire/warning of TV culture in general and its isolating effect on people like the cableguy and others less extreme. This culminates in the (rather overstated) shot of a man picking up a book when his TV has gone on the fritz.
What could have been an engrossing - and at times even scary - film tries to do too much in the end and instead becomes an example of what happens when you don't stick to the point.
The movie comes to a point where it must decide what it's going to be, and unfortunately director Ben Stiller tries to go both directions, leaving both not adequately explored. The movie begins as the story of two lonely people - the cableguy, who tries to cure his loneliness by being your best friend 24-7, and the average lonely guy played by Broderick who deals with life and relationships in the average American way. The movie then rapidly becomes a satire/warning of TV culture in general and its isolating effect on people like the cableguy and others less extreme. This culminates in the (rather overstated) shot of a man picking up a book when his TV has gone on the fritz.
What could have been an engrossing - and at times even scary - film tries to do too much in the end and instead becomes an example of what happens when you don't stick to the point.