| Fan Club for Jim Carrey: Movie review: Just say no to Carrey's 'Yes ... Mar 4th 2012, 07:54 Yes Man: Romantic comedy. Starring Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel. Directed by Peyton Reed. (PG-13. 104 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)  
Jim Carrey's back with his physical, crazy-guy shtick - though it's more creepy at 46 than it was in the 1990s - as a guy who has to say yes to everything in "Yes Man." Jim Carrey has reached an uncomfortable point in his career: He has gotten too old to act that way. You know, that way. That weird Jim Carrey way. Like Jerry Lewis, who got too old to squeal "Dean" like a 6-year-old, Carrey has reached the point where his familiar eye-popping, crazy-smiling shtick no longer seems anarchic, just creepy; no longer cute, just creepy; and no longer funny, just creepy. Like Lewis, Carrey is bound to make an adjustment soon. He's too talented to go away. But one thing is clear: What he's doing in "Yes Man" is no strategy for the long haul. "Yes Man" is the kind of career move a performer makes in lieu of actually making a career move. It's an attempt to hover in place. In "Liar, Liar," he played a man who could not stop telling the truth. "Yes Man" stays close to formula: He's a guy who goes to a life-improvement seminar and resolves to say yes to life - to say yes to any request that's made of him.
So if a homeless man asks him for a ride, he has to say yes. If the same homeless man asks him for all his money, he has to say yes. If an Internet advertisement asks him if he wants to join a Persian dating service, etc., etc., everything's yes, yes, yes. The fun is supposed to be in watching Carrey squirm with discomfort, but that turns out not to be much fun. Surprisingly, the movie provides no escalating series of comic disasters resulting from each yes. The comedy, to the extent there is any, consists mainly of Carrey's verbal asides and strained reactions to people. The script gives him very little to work with.
It does give him an attractive and engaging leading lady in Zooey Deschanel, who is quirky in her own right, but once again the script doesn't come through. It's just a generic girl role, with a few eccentric characteristics tacked on, but not in any way that affects the character's speech or behavior. Really, all Deschanel gets to do is look at Carrey and pretend to be charmed, as he makes unfunny jokes and carries on like a middle-aged wacko.
Which brings us back to the age thing. The familiar Carrey routine may have suited a young man, but he's 46 now, and standing next to the 28-year-old Deschanel, he looks every minute of it. Moreover, the movie places his character, Carl, within a group of friends in which everyone is no more than 35, implying that Carl is supposed to be in his early 30s. A 46-year-old man doesn't normally register as Methuselah, but present him as though he were 32 and give him a 28-year-old girlfriend (who looks 23), and things get awkward.
On top of that, have him act in a way that, in real life, would probably scare women, not seduce them, and a funny (as in strange) thing starts to happen in the audience: Arm hair stands up. Skin tingles and crawls. People sink into their seats. They feel their facial muscles tightening. They are wincing. Wincing and cringing.
However, there is one genuinely funny performance in "Yes Man" worthy of note - not Carrey's, but that of Rhys Darby, who plays Carl's openhearted, incredibly geeky, Harry Potter-loving boss. As sometimes happens with actors who are especially vivid, I thought for sure I'd seen Darby before, but "Yes Man" marks Darby's feature debut.
From there on, it's all uphill.
-- Advisory: This film contains adult humor and the sight of Carrey's posterior peeking through a hospital gown.  | |