Dumb & Dumber - The magic of Empathy

One of the essentials in writing for the screen is to understand the principles of empathy and how to use this knowledge to emotionally engage the audience.
The human mind responds automaticly with emotional reactions when watching other individuals react emotionally. That's part of the magic in how movies engage the audience to actually feel what the people on the screen feel.
If you don't get my point I guess it would be made quite clear if you could manage to look at your self in the mirror while watching this combined clip from Dumb Dumber 1994 (© Warner Bros)
www.imdb.com/ti...
You find more on the subject of the human mind and empathy in this scientific article : www.nytimes.com...