Movie Review: Yes Man
Yes Man, starring the incomparable, Jim Carrey, is anything but a Yes! movie. Though I enjoyed its heart and its message, the film just seemed to be flat in almost every area. Carrey tried to bring back his brand of humor combining his trademark slapstick comedy with his above the top and in your face nature. Unfortunately, even as a fan of Carrey’s comedic style, it wasn’t enough for me to give this movie a solid grade.
The movie follows a downer named, Carl Allen. Allen has been divorced and because of his broken heart he has decided to just coast through his life, ignoring his friends, promotions at work and even missing an engagement party for his best friend, Peter (played by Bradley Cooper). One day, Carl, a loan officer at a bank, is eating outside, when he is approached by a long lost friend/co-worker, Nick (played by John Michael Higgins). Nick immediately sees that Carl is just coasting through his life saying NO to everything and everyone. Nick presents Carl with an offer to attend a seminar bent on helping people to say YES more, in an attempt to live a better and more open and exciting life.
At the seminar, Carl is presented with a challenge from the enigmatic leader and creator of the YES program, Terrence Bundley (played by General Zad a.k.a. Terrence Stamp). Bundley challenges Carl to say YES to everything, ultimately after his embarrassment and overwhelming frustration from Nick and the seminar, Carl decides to go with the challenge.
The challenge to say YES ends up leading Carl on a bizarre series of events and comic happenings. Unfortunately, the comic happenings aren’t that memorable. The only real funny thing I can remember from the movie was when Carl shows up to his co-worker Norman’s (played by Rhys Darby) apartment for a Harry Potter party. Carry was dressed in a Harry Potter costume for little kid and it looked funny. The Harry Potter party was also very humorous within the context of the movie. There was another funny scene early on where Carl gets fellatio from his old lady neighbor after saying YES to fixing some of her shelves. Lastly, there was a heart warming scene where Carrey sings “Jumper” from Third Eye Blind, to keep a man (Luiz Guzman) from jumping off a building.
Ultimately through the barrage of events to where Carl has to say YES too everything, he meets Allison (played by Zooey Deschanel), a care-free and light-hearted lead singer of a Von-Iva type band that had only 4 fans. Allison and Carl begin to fall for each other as Allen begins to become increasingly spontaneous. However, like most movies of this nature, there are bumps in the road for the lovers and Carl must realize that just by saying YES you aren’t living life. He figures out the rational decisions can be made based on the parameters of the decision at hand and that NO is alright once in-awhile (That sounds kinda stupid but it is explained better in the movie).
In the movie Terrence Bundley (Stamp) merely points out that you start by saying YES only to help you live life and stop closing doors by opening your horizons and experiences. I thought the movie had a great message about living life and how saying YES helps that. Also the romantic side of the story was very charming and I began to root for both characters of Carl and Allison. Again, my problems laid within the stale and flat humor surrounding the wacky events within the story. The character of Norman was really the best character in the movie and made me laugh the most.
The Good - The heartfelt Message, Carrey’s rendition of “Jumper”, Zooey Deschanel’s charm and Rhys Darby’s presence as Norman
The Bad - Stale and flat humor at times, John Michael Higgins is annoying and ensemble cast was flat
The Ugly - A scene where Carl gets what is assumed “fellatio” by an old woman
The Consensus: Ultimately, Yes Man is a better love story than it is a comedy but it is also a good message movie that in these tough times is sometimes nice to hear. Carrey should go back to his recent indie films like Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind.
2.5 fuses out 4
Directed by: Peyton Reed
Produced by: Jim Carrey, David Heyman, Richard D. Zanuck
Written by Screenplay: Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul, Andrew Mogel
Based in the Book by: Danny Wallace
Starring: Jim Carrey, Terrence Stamp, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Darby, Danny Masterson
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
Release date: December 19, 2008 (US), December 26, 2008 (UK)
Running time: 104 min.
