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| The Majestic
Year: 2000
Classification: Drama
Directed:
- Frank Darabont
Actors/Actresses:
- Brent Briscoe
- Jim Carrey as Peter Appleton
- Bruce Campbell
- Matt Damon
- Frank Darabont
- Amanda Detmer
- Martin Landau
- Laurie Holden
- Catherine Dent
Sabotaged by its own style
A surprisingly good performance from Jim Carrey, a heart-warming story from Michael Sloane, and some beautiful direction from Frank Darabont are undermined here by fatally languorous pacing. Just as in "The Green Mile", Darabont gives us way too much time to think about what might happen, and given it's such an old-fashioned story you can easily work it out. Of course, movies aren't always about twists and surprises, but when you find yourself predicting it shot for shot and anticipating dialogue line for line by the end of the first half hour, there's something seriously amiss. It isn't helped by Mark Isham's insistently saccharine score washing over every scene, relentlessly reminding you that every second moment is meant to be "achingly emotional." It's almost as if they don't trust the actors or the script. Ironically, the musical safety net just forces us out: we're never allowed to fall into the story, to forget for a moment that it's a movie we're watching and feel things out for ourselves. Quite simply, it never gets real. The result is film which feels artificial, an academically interesting, intertextual, introspective Capra homage at best. And as much as we love Capra, there's a reason they stopped making films like his: cinema has moved on. It doesn't mean audiences are any more or less sophisticated these days. It just means they have been taught to have different expectations. And while filmmakers shouldn't pander to those, they ignore them at their peril. It's a shame this film isn't better, because there's a really good story here - an important story about patriotism, freedom, American democracy, and the kind of state-sanctioned lunacy inflicted in their name. But as presented, "The Majestic" makes them seem like antiquated heirlooms of a fondly remembered age - notions we can take out, dust off, briefly smile at, then just as quickly forget.
The feel-good movie of the year.
Jim Carrey plays a 1950's Hollywood screenwriter, who, upon being named as a potential communist, has a few too many drinks and gets into a horrific car accident. He smashes his head, and wakes up in an idyllic little town with that old Hollywood classic....(say it with me...) AMNESIA. He's mistaken for the son of the local theater-owner (The Majestic, of course...), believed to have died in World War II. The townspeople all welcome him back, he loves his new life, and all is well.....but The House Committee is looking for him (by now they think him a commie mastermind), and what'll happen when/if he remembers his old life?
The Majestic reminded me of the type of films that Preston Sturges and Frank Capra used to make, It's a gentle fable about love, tolerance, human rights, and a reminder that sometimes we all need to stop and smell the roses.
Jim Carrey is great as the Jimmy Stewart-esque lead, and Laurie Holden is luminous as his (supposed) ex-girlfriend. She is just beautiful! I couldn't take my eyes off her, and her quiet, dignified performance lends a lot to the movie. The film is a little too long, but I left with a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart, so I suggest you give The Majestic a try.
Plus, it has a cameo by Bruce (Evil Dead)Campbell!! What more could you want??
Nice thought, but no originality
Didn't anyone notice how derivative this movie is? The whole plot screams of Marin Guerre. And the scene in front of the HUAC was lifted straight from The Front (Woody Allen was a little more colorful). They even had the guy who went to a communist party meeting strictly to score with a girl. (It was Zero Mostel in the original movie.)
As for the ending... c'mon everybody sing! "Now the whole damn bus is cheering, and I can't believe I see... a hundred yellow ribbons round the old... oak... tree!"
Buy The Majestic at Amazon.com
Buy posters at Allposters.com
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