"Jim Carrey is one of the world's biggest movie stars."

This insightful narration is the entire exposition to tonight's Life and Times and is typical of the disappointing profile of Jim Carrey.

The biography at 9 p.m. is the kind of paint-by-numbers profile you'd see as filler on Star! but fairly trivial for a CBC production. It merely passes over the highs and recaps the lows.

Or, as narrator/filmmaker Ralph Benmergui so eloquently puts it, all the times when life gave the performer a "kick in the guts."

Who would have guessed Jim Carrey was the class clown? Did you know the Carrey family once lived in a van? Or that Jim first took the stage at Yuk Yuk's as a teenager?

How about the time Carrey wrote himself a $10-million cheque for "acting services rendered?"

Of course you did.

Benmergui's meeting with Carrey himself is but a few brief soundbites from a five-minute chat during the Man on the Moon promotional tour.

Any emotional, eloquent or revealing quote from the star is courtesy old footage from an appearance on Oprah.

The most interesting interviews the director managed to obtain are those with "Team Carrey." It's quite entertaining to hear his manager and agent discuss how they played hardball with studios to make Carrey a $20-million man.

Life and Times also tracked down a handful of the comic's past managers and the guy who gave Carrey his first sitcom deal.

Life and Times doesn't actually show any clips from Duck Factory, though. Ditto for any of his early film roles.

It doesn't feature a second of footage from The Truman Show, Man on the Moon or shots of him on the set of upcoming films.

Don't they realize he's one of the world's biggest movie stars?


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