 To close off this exploration into some of Carrey's best dramatic performances, I went with one of my favorite love stories, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. It's an interesting and imaginative look at how our minds work while in the midst of a bad break-up. That includes things like lashing out about something, but not meaning it, and of course, the willingness to erase someone from your memory altogether at the time.
As the film opens, we meet the shy and introverted Joel Barish (Carrey), who impulsively boards a train to Montauk one chilly Valentine's Day. By chance, she meets the whimsical and free-spirited Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet), and they form a relationship just before the opening credits introduce us to the tale of tragedy ahead. After a rough break-up, Joel comes home to a surprise - some card reading that Clementine has erased him from her memory. As a result, Joel seeks out Dr. Howard Mierzwaik (Tom Wilkinson), inventor of this technology, to undergo the same process. However, as his memories of Clementine begin to disappear, he starts to realize that fond memories are something that come out of every relationship, and might not be something to throw away as though it was yesterday's trash. Through a secondary story arc, we are introduced to a few of Mierzwaik's employess who "oversee" the whole process. Stan (Mark Ruffalo) is the expert, so to speak, until he brings in his coworker, Mary (Kirsten Dunst), leading to a bit of unprofessionalism. But helping Stan is the creepy Patrick (Elijah Wood) whose pretty much playing Frodo the pervert here. As the film rolls on, we learn that he intends to take over Joel's identity as Clementine's love interest, using her memories with Joel as a reference point. I will be the first to admit that there's not a whole lot of straightforwardness to this one. The execution is an artsy one, and you might find yourself a bit confused as to what exactly is going on. But I will say that you kinda have to sit through that confusion to get your head together as the film comes together, nearing the end. I'd say it's a bit worse than something like 'Inception' for that, so if the whole "in the mind" thing isn't for you, you might stick with 'Truman Show' or 'Man on the Moon' as your best Carrey Drama. With that said though, I tend to lean towards this type of imaginative material, and I'm always fascinated by dream-associated material. Truth be told, I confuse much more easily with things like political thrillers and, you know, real life stuff. So I may be a bit bias in my opinion about how good this is. But if you are in the midst of a rough breakup, or having some kind of problem, wanting to forget about someone, I recommend trying this out. While it's confusing for a while, just pay attention. It ends in such a way that allows the viewer to embrace the chaos of a situation as opposed to keeping things straight and narrow, which can still lead to problems. It all ends with one word, and to me, it's one of the most powerfully emotional words to end something on. Some may not agree, but the same word is used in a certain super famous story-based game, and it was strong there, too. But check it out for yourself, and see if you agree or disagree.
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 When it comes to Jim Carrey's dramatic roles, there are a few to chose from, but 'The Majestic' tends to land at the bottom of people's lists. To be perfectly fair, the film resembles plenty that came before it with a lot of its ideas, and has been deemed unoriginal by many. But if I'm just recommending a movie based on a performance, for me, this is definitely one of Carrey's best. So, before I get into it, just know that I'm basing this Screening Suggestion more on that than anything else. That said, to be perfectly honest, I do enjoy this for what it is.
Our story takes place back in 1951, and centers on Hollywood screenwriter, Peter Appleton (Carrey), working for HHS Studios. Things are going well for him, overall. He's dating the lovely starlet, Sandra Sinclair (Amanda Detmer), and he premiers his latest film at the Grauman's Chinese Theater on a double-bill with 'The African Queen' (a real-life classic). By the way, his film stars the one and only Bruce Campbell (the actor of the adventure flick is unnamed, but c'mon, it's Bruce Campbell) as Roland the Intrepid Explorer. It's a brief glimpse, but a fun little tidbit for us Campbell fans. Anyway, getting back to the point, it all soon comes to a halt when he's accused of being a Communist due to attending an antiwar meeting in college that he claims he only attended to impress a girl. This all puts his career on the rocks, leading him to drink some heavy liquid on the rocks, and eventually crash his car into a river with no rocks. He awakens, washed ashore, in a small village that pines for its many lost World War II soldiers. He is found with amnesia, forgetting everything about his past, and is mistaken for one of the town's lost soliders, Luke. Most convinced are Lukes sweetheart, Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden) and father, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau). Will he be able adjust to Luke's former life, convinced that he is Luke? Or will his own former life unexpectedly catch up with him? Easy enough to predict, but it's fun to think of the scenario. So, you may be wondering where exactly the title comes from. Once Harry takes "Luke" in, he brings him to a run down, abandoned theater that they used to run together before Luke went to war. Much of the film has to do with the restoration of the theater, and bringing back the good old picture show to the town. The whole time as an audience member, you kinda sit there knowing how it's all gonna play out. A Hollywood writer with a well-known film out there, suffering amnesia, helps to open a theater? Bottom line, the film is predictable. It also enjoys manipulating your heart strings, so it's not gonna be for just anyone. However, it manages to make the Screening Suggestion list mostly based on Carrey giving a good dramatic reading the whole way through. He does a great job here with what he has to work with, and it's kind of a shame no one looks in this direction when it comes to his performances because the rest of the film is okay at best. It's also a good way to see some of Frank Darabont's original dramatic work. He has his share of dramatic adaptations, including 'The Green Mile' and 'The Shawshank Redemption', but if you're curious to see him execute his own dramatic story, it's a good place to look.  Another fine example of Jim Carrey flexing his acting muscles is his portrayal of the late Andy Kaufman in 1999's 'Man on the Moon'. It turns out that Jim Carrey was doing a deep dive with this role, perhaps taking his method acting a touch too far. For further information, check out 'Jim & Andy' on Netflix. It's all about his work on this project, and it's some interesting stuff to say the least.
Getting back to the film at hand, however, here we have a biopic on the comedic career of Andy Kaufman. The film covers a brief glimpse into his childhood up to his stand-up, but most of it takes place in the days he starred on 'Taxi' ('78-'83), and the days leading up to his passing of a rare type of lung cancer. I never knew much about Andy Kaufman before this movie, as he passed when I was just about a year old. My parents watched 'Taxi' when it was on in syndication, but I didn't really pay attention (my mistake). But this film showed me what his sense of humour was like. Instead of being the guy who would come out and tell a joke or two, he would go for genuine audience reactions and eat it up - even if that reaction was to "boo" or get angry or upset. Along the way, he creates and portrays a character known as Tony Clifton, who would be a trashy personality that would endure a good number of years in secret. If Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton needed to be in the same place at the same time, Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti), a writer and friend to Andy, would take on the role. Together, those two would really tear it up when it came to getting some sort of a reaction from audiences that wasn't a laugh. It's the idea that messing with people is funny, as long as no one really gets hurt. Kaufman was managed by George Shapiro (Danny DeVito - who is an interesting casting choice when you see the two side by side), and Shapiro's going along with so much of his material helped him to become a huge success before the days of 'Seinfeld'. He was also good friends with Andy, and one of a very select few to know Tony Clifton was just a character Andy played. He was also executive producer on this film, so you have to imagine things are pretty accurate here. Kaufman's brand of humour isn't particularly up my alley. I might compare him to someone like Sacha Baron Cohen, coming up with things like 'Borat' and 'Bruno'. That "mess-with-people" comedy was never something I really got into. I've watched and enjoyed the 'Jackass' movies, but they're mostly just messing with each other to make us laugh. When things offend people or get too intense (even sometimes kinda scary) it's not really for me. But if it's your cup of tea, clearly you're not alone. Kaufman kinda paved the way for that kind of thing, so you have him to either thank or blame. For me, this is another one I manage to meet in the middle, but I know others who would and do love it. It goes to show that a lot of good laughs for people come from the reaction of other people in a situation where they don't know how to react. In a sense, Kaufman perfected this, and I'll give him credit for being able to pull it off. On top of that, Carrey does an awesome job here, but I have to say what may be more fascinating than the actual film is the documentary, 'Jim & Andy'. Again, it's on Netflix so I recommend going over, checking it out, and then watching this with new eyes.  Back in the days before 'Black Mirror', this was a film that sort of toyed with the idea of an alternate reality that uses accessible (or almost accessible) technology. It further toyed with a "big brother" sort of idea, but instead of all of us being watched, one of us is being watched, and it's all part of an elaborate, long-running TV show.
The show's concept is to take a child from birth named Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) and air his entire life on TV. His life takes place in a massive sound studio, providing artificial everything it takes to convince Truman that it's all real. However, when a stage light falls from the sky, it sets into motion a series of strange occurrences that suggest to Truman that something truly bizarre is happening in his life. That's really all there is to it, in a nutshell, and despite a few odd CG effects (for 1998), the film still totally holds up. It gets us thinking, and the idea that such a thing could be real is sort of brought to the forefront, although it probably worked better in 1998 than 20-plus years later. Nowadays we have shows like 'Black Mirror' that we compare things like this to, as it sits at the top. But unlike 'Black Mirror', this isn't really a cautionary tale. To me, this is much more of a metaphor about the escape from our everyday, strange reality. Despite the set-up, Truman is just an average, everyday, normal guy. He's married, he works for an insurance company, and his daily life is altogether similar to most. However, the idea of free will is often questioned here, as the show's creator and executive producer, Christof (Ed Harris), essentially plays God through all of this. As he mentions in the beginning, Truman has complete control over his actions and decisions, but things are also controlled. If he's not "meant" to do something or go somewhere, Christof gets his crew to stop him. This is best illustrated by instilling the fear of the ocean inside him in a truly traumatizing way (which also makes him stay put). A lot of people didn't know what to make of 'The Truman Show' upon its release, as it was Jim Carrey's first real step away from his comedic antics. The year before, 'Liar Liar' was released, though, which was a solid combination of his comedic and dramatic skills, so speaking for myself, I never minded him stepping forward to try something new. Nowadays, however, the film has seemingly gained a bit of a cult following, and is seen as a better story now than it was before. Also, One thing I didn't realize (so I'll share it here) was that this was inspired by a 'Twilight Zone' episode from the late 80's called 'Special Service', so that may very well be worth checking out. My humble opinion is that it's one of Jim Carrey's finest films. We get a fair share of comedy from him here, but he also shows us that he can take things seriously. In retrospect, it's hard to picture anyone else in the role. Despite a few nay-sayers back when it was released, it currently has extremely positive reviews and has become a classic of sorts. I'd probably say that it was ahead of its time, but now is the perfect time to watch it. |
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