Kid-friendly penguins (and Jim Carrey, too)

MANILA, Philippines - With apologies to preposterous “P”-prone personal assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), Mr. Popper’s Penguins presents a perfectly purposeful production for presenting Jim Carey anew, along with a plucky sextet of birds.

We’ve seen Jim Carrey match up excellently against a pretty diverse cast of non-human co-stars, evidenced in the two hilarious installments of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (and even Bruce Almighty, come to it). But Mr. Popper is more of a family adventure movie that you would actually want your kids to watch  or at least feel sufficiently comfortable to let them watch. Remember, Carrey movies  even those ostensibly family flavored  are not exactly run-of-the-mill propositions. Didn’t he just give you the creeps in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and How the Grinch Stole Christmas? If director Tim Burton has the knack of giving classics a twisted turn, Jim does the same for its characters.

Jim has always used his over-the-top acting and rubbery facial expressions to his benefit  giving new meaning to flexibility. We’ve also seen him cross over to heavy drama and do just as proficiently. Given the range that he has been able to show us, Mr. Popper’s Penguins is something of a letdown  a middling movie that isn’t much of a calisthenic challenge for Jim’s vast thespian prowess.

As the ambitious real estate developer Tommy Popper, Jim’s chutzpah is used in full effect to depict a confident character that is quite a bit oily as well. But we forgive him, because we understand the circumstances of his childhood. At the beginning, we see him pining for the voice of his father on the ham radio. This absentee, world-traveling dad was everywhere except where his young Tommy was.

This is, ironically, status quo for present-day Tommy’s family. He wears his career success as a hollow crown on his head because he has been left by his wife Amanda (Carla Gugino), and his two kids aren’t exactly enamored with him.

Everything changes (as they always do) when the animals arrive crated at his doorstep, courtesy of his recently departed father: One, then five more Gentoo penguins. Naturally, Tommy does everything he can to rid his plush Manhattan apartment of the plucky, noisy creatures. That is, until he discovers his kids have taken a liking to the penguins  and make him promise not to take them back.

So we begin to see Tommy changing from being career-obsessed into penguin-obsessed. As expected, the flightless birds throw a monkey wrench into Tommy’s plan to become partner in the company he works for. Predictably, too, as his professional life unravels, Tommy’s tumultuous family life begins to right itself.

All well and good, you say? Well, how many times do we have to charge animals with the onerous task of fixing our lives and relationships? It has become a tired formula that needs an infusion of imagination  if not a thorough rehash altogether. Which is not to say Mr. Popper’s Penguins is an epic failure of a movie. That would be Jim-style over-the-top unfair. Maybe I just don’t fall under the target demographic. So, like I said, the kids will definitely enjoy it. A perfectly passable pre-adolescent pastime.