A Dumb Heart

Behind all the outrageousness and all around hilarity of the Farrelly Brothers’ classic “Dumb and Dumber,” is a rather tender heart. Lloyd is a professional chauffeur who becomes infatuated with one of his customers, Mary. Lloyd picks up a briefcase that Mary left behind before flying to Aspen, CO. He wants to travel to Aspen to return the briefcase and, more importantly, see Mary again, but his roommate, Harry, doesn’t want to. Lloyd convinces Harry with this speech: “You know what I'm sick and tired of, Harry? I'm sick and tired of having to eke my way through life. I'm sick and tired of bein' a nobody. But most of all I'm sick and tired of havin' nobody.” That quote sparks the cross-country road trip that propels to the story forward, but it is also key to the emotional core of the movie.

Lloyd is in a position familiar to many, he likes someone who doesn’t like him back. He decides to take a chance on her though. He travels across the United States for her only to have his best friend betray him. Lloyd witnesses Harry cavorting with her in Aspen and it breaks his heart. In the end, the two friends get over the bad blood and are portrayed as very content. They didn’t gain anything. Neither one got the girl. They just had each other and that was enough. The story is very representative of the human cycle of dissatisfaction.

Lloyd was convinced that Mary would improve his life. When he considered his life without her, he said that he had “nobody,” but he really had somebody. He had Harry. The audience understands that having Harry was enough all along. So often, we convince ourselves that life would be better if only a certain thing changed. But if even we achieve that change, we eventually find something else to make us dissatisfied. As the late Michael Crichton wrote, “As a rule, nothing you lack now will make you happy when you get it.” But realizing that rule doesn’t stop our feelings of dissatisfaction from causing distress. “Dumb and Dumber” very accurately portrays both Lloyd’s conviction in his belief that he needed Mary and the pain and heartache it caused him. We already have everything we need to be happy and we must hold fast to that belief. It is so easy to feel dissatisfied and struggle to see the good in life, but it is especially those moments that require great faith. We already have everything we need.