Synopsis
Jim Carrey stars in Yes Man as Carl, a divorcee stuck in his life at a dead-end job with an overpowering resistance to doing anything remotely interesting when asked. When he runs into an former co-worker, he ends up attending a self-help seminar that forces him to agree to everything that crosses his path.
Evaluation
Pros
- Jim Carrey returns to what he does best: comedic roles with a solid human component to them. This movie is in the vein of some of his other work that I enjoyed such as Liar, Liar, Fun With Dick And Jane and The Majestic.
- Great supporting work from: Terence Stamp (Superman II, Get Smart) as the self-help guru, Fionnula Flanagan (Brotherhood, Lost) as Tillie, the elderly neighbor with a wild streak and John Michael Higgins as Nick, the former co-worker who convinces Carl to attend this odd seminar in the first place.
- Zooey Deschanel (Failure to Launch, Elf)was perfectly cast as Allison. She is building quite a resumé playing these good-hearted, quirky girls-next-door.
Cons
- Despite good casting choices, I felt that there really wasn’t a great deal of chemistry between Carrey and Deschanel. They seemed friendly enough, but I had a hard time buying them as a romantic couple.
- Some of the writing made me hurt inside and the plot was rather rom-com formulaic — boy w/ dead-end life, boy meets girl, boy has life-changing experience, boy and girl fight, boy and girl make up after goofy chase scene)
Favorite Moments
- The requisite drunken bar fight scene was actually really fucking funny and I have no idea why… “She won’t get to go to the ball!”
- A couple of disturbingly funny scenes involving one with Tillie showing Carl her… um, gratitude for his help with a chore. The other involves Jim Carrey’s bare ass on a high-end motorcycle.
- The scenes with John Michael Higgins at the beginning of the film made me laugh like crazy. The man is so much fun to watch on screen, going all the way back to his breakout role as David Letterman in The Late Shift. You can also catch him in Fred Claus as a lovestruck elf.
- Watching Carl getting grilled while under arrest at the airport was quite touching… oh, and still funny as the cops have the completely wrong idea about him.
- Tape-face!
Judgment
Were there mistakes made with this movie? Yes! Should you still see it anyway? Yes! Can I stop asking random questions like this? Yes!
I like to think of the Jim Carrey oeuvre as fitting into three primary categories: You’ve got his physical comedy movies, like Ace Ventura and The Mask; then there are his darker films, such as The Cable Guy and The Number 23; and then there are his best works to date, like The Truman Show and Liar, Liar. I’d certainly put Yes Man in that last group. Although it’s not his best work and it has its flaws, the film is funny enough to make me want to put it on my shelf to inspire me to better things.
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