Me, Myself And Irene | 2000

After years as a devoted father, the too-easy-going Rhode Island cop Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey) suddenly erupts into his repressed, libidinous alter ego Hank Evans (though the use of the term schizophrenia to describe this split personality came in for criticism).

Charlie’s modest home on the Narragansett Bay, southwest of Newport, was 21 Mollusk Drive, on Point Judith in the village of Galilee. The little house was redeveloped in 2004 and a much larger residence now stands on the spot.

He dallies with his sweetheart, Layla, declaring undying love at King’s Beach, Ocean Avenue, south of Newport.

They marry at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Washington Street at Willow Street, in Newport, but Layla soon runs off with the chauffeur, leaving Charlie with three kids to bring up.

The local main street is the eastern end of Narragansett Avenue in Jamestown, on Conanicut Island, west of Newport. ‘Freddie the Barber’ is the Conanicut Marine Services store at 20 Narragansett Avenue. Jamestown is seen also in Dan In Real Life and Moonrise Kingdom).

Charlie lives his placid life for 18 years until the day he finally flips out and unleashes the anarchic Hank.

When Irene (Renee Zellweger), pulled over by the cops for a minor accident, needs to be escorted back to her hometown of ‘Massena, New York’, it falls to Charlie to take her and – wouldn’t you know it – he mislays his Hank-suppressing medication.

From here, the movie deserts Rhode Island to feature the rolling green hills of Vermont, with the area around Burlington in the northwest of the state standing in for ‘New York State’.

Before the road trip even begins, the police station is the Town Hall, 7900 Williston Road in  Williston, east of Burlington, Vermont.

About 30 miles south of Burlington is the town of Addison. It’s here you’ll find Addison Four Corners Store, 4934 Route 22A, the gas station at which Hank gets tasered after taking on four beer-slurping baseball players.

Dumping the car and continuing on foot, Charlie/Hank and Irene come across the Ben & Jerry ice cream factory (which kind of indicates they may not be in ‘New York’ after all), where Hank gets Irene to hit him as part of a scam to make a bit of money. You too can tour the home of quirkily-named ice cream treats, the Ben & Jerry’s Waterbury Factory, 1281 Waterbury-Stowe Road, north of Waterbury.

‘Rutland’ railroad station, where the sore-bottomed Charlie phones his police force pal and Irene comes clean about her past, is Waterbury Station, 1 Rotarian Place, in Waterbury itself. The ramshackle Victorian buildings seen in the film have been beautifully perked up since 2000, and now house the Green Mountain Coffee Visitor Center.

The train takes them to ‘Providence’ station, where the fight between Charlie and Hank gives Carrey the opportunity for a bravura display of physical comedy. The rail stop is not ‘Rhode Island’ at all, but Union Station, 1 Main Street, in Burlington. There’s no longer a commuter service from the station, but you can catch the Champlain Valley Flyer branch of the Green Mountain Scenic Railroad here.

Outside the station, Charlie/Hank steals a car on Burlington’s Main Street and heads off to catch up with Irene on the train.

‘South County’ station, from which Irene gets abducted by the bad guy the moment she sets foot on the platform, is Essex Junction Amtrak station at 29 Railroad Avenue in Essex Junction, just east of Burlington.

She’s dragged off to an crumbling old trestle bridge, which seems to be only a short distance away, where Charlie gets his thumb shot off in his attempt to rescue her.

The bridge is a dressed-up footbridge at Middlebury, about 30 miles to the south (not far from Addison). It’s the Otter Creek Footbridge, running north from Mill Street, alongside the Old Stone Mill.

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