Joe's Movie Reviews

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

"Yes" And No

First, I want to say that if there are any fellow members of Lyndale United Church Of Christ who just found out about this blog in last week's E-mail blast and are now checking it out for the first time... welcome, and thank you. You should perhaps know that you are joining an ever-growing community of readers that will soon make this blog the most widely-read online movie-related site in the world, and causing Roger Ebert and the Internet Movie Database to give up in frustration, unable to compete.

And by the way, if you think you detect a certain amount of sarcasm and/or irony in the previous paragraph, then you probably are NOT a newcomer here. It sounds as if you know exactly what to expect. And far be it from me to disappoint you. (And again, thanks... no saracasm in that).
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"Yes Man". Is there anything funnier than the site of a comedian who has made a 15-year film career out of the same basic set of wacky facial expressions do still another 100-minute series of variations on those same expressions? Can there possibly be anything more hysterical than what seems like the tenth version this month of the old "emotionally distant male reconnects with the world through the help of a quirky, offbeat love interest" plot? And are you the sort of person who would answer "yes" to either of the above questions? Oh... I'm very sorry to hear that. I hope you can get some effective therapy soon. Now, as for the rest of us...

In "Yes Man", Jim Carrey plays an emotionally distant (of COURSE he is!) bank employee who, as the result of a recent bad divorce, has withdrawn from all of his friends and family. One day he gets talked into attending a seminar by a charismatic self-help guru played by Terrence Stamp, who persuades him to accept the power of "Yes"... to literally say "Yes" to absolutely every single offer or opportunity that comes his way. Needless to say, this changes his life in major ways, most of which are intended to seem wild and wacky. (I wonder if George W. Bush attended a seminar like this just before his first term, and from then on any time one of his advisors came to him with suggestions like "What do you say we invade Iraq and then lie about the WMDs and other reasons for the invasion?", he had no choice but to say yes? It would explain so much!)

This is essentially a movie devoted to fulfilling our expectations of virtually every person involved in making it. Want to see Jim Carrey do Jim Carrey instead of stretching himself the way he did so brilliantly (I DO mean that, seriously) in "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind"? You got it! Want to see Zooey Deschanel take one more step towards firming up her reputation as "the quirky girl who inspires our wacky hero to see the light"? You got that, too. It even continues the recent downward trend of Terrence Stamp, getting him involved once more in trying to provide a touch of dignity and class to a very lowbrow comedy that desperately needs it. And once again, it's not quite enough.

It doesn't seem all that long ago that comedy was based on the UNexpected... characters saying or doing things you had no way of anticipating. When did that change? Once in a very great while, a picture like "Tropic Thunder" that really doesn't play by any kind of rules comes along, but it's now the extremely rare exception. And genuinely talented performers like Carrey, Deschanel and Stamp are content to fritter away their abilities in predictable hackwork like "Yes Man". It may not be the absolute worst example of how far popular culture has fallen (not as long as Celine Dion still has a career), but it's not exactly very encouraging, either.

If the premise of this movie seems interesting enough that you actually feel inclined to catch this movie, I have two alternate suggestions. (1): Read the non-fiction book of the same title by Scottish author Danny Wallace that was the VERY, VERY loose basis of this film. It's genuinely hysterical, and not at all predictable. (2) You could also see "Liar, Liar", a picture with a not too disimilar premise that Carrey made some 13 years ago, when his comedic approach was still fresh and he was occasionally inclined to take some chances. Or just catch some old Monty Python episodes. Warning, though: they could very well make it impossible for you to ever take a film like "Yes Man" seriously ever again. Pardon me now, I have to go and watch the "Argument Clinic" sketch. After writing about "Yes Man", I feel the need for something REALLY funny.

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