YES MAN
US, 2008, 104 minutes, Colour.
Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper, John Michael Higgins, Rhys Darby, Fionulla Flanagan, Terence Stamp.
Directed by Peyton Reed.
Jim Carrey is back. He is still mugging to good effect so his fans should be pleased enough. He is also doing some seriousness which he has been trying on and off over the last ten years.
The premiss of Yes Man is the value of self-help motivational methods – but the film, one might say, is self-betterment lite – or, not quite.
Carrey is Carl Allen, divorced, morose, introspective, avoiding everybody including friends, working at a humdrum job – with an irrepressibly optimistic boss who holds Harry Potter and 300 parties where friends (of the geeky variety) dress up as characters, have non-intoxicating refreshments and watch the movies over and over again. He is played very well by New Zealand stand-up comic, Rhys Darby, accent and all. Carl's word is obviously and defintively, 'no'.
Dragged off to a Yes seminar and surrounded by gleeful cheering devotees eager to shout 'yes' at the slightest cue, he finds himself spotlit and he is badgered by the supremely self-confident guru into making a covenant with himself to say 'yes' to everything. The Yes-master is played humorously with sombre panache by Terence Stamp.
Carl is persuaded by his friend to his first 'yes', into giving a lift to a vagrant (who tells him that hanging around this Yes auditorium gets him more lifts and gifts than he used to get). This hard-expressed initial 'yes' leads him on a zany and unpredictable emotional journey that, of course, changes his life (even to his being arrested as a terrorist and interrogated by programmed agents with paranoid presuppositions – except that he, utimately, has to learn to use his common sense when he has to say 'no'. And that doesn't come easily.
This kind of story lends itself to a series of funny episodes rather than a real plot, so one just has to along with Carl for the ride, some hit, som miss experiences, until he realises what life is meant to be, happy, giving and loving. Zooey Deschanel is the kooky singer, photographer, jogger that he encounters and...., of course.
Though written before the current financial crises, the screenplay has Carl as a loans approval officer at a bank. No trouble in saying 'no'. When he has to say 'yes', he approves small loans for people to be able to buy things they want/need. And, his superior says, 98% of them are faithful in repaying loans. There must be some message there about doing good rather than doing greed for the increasing number of discredited financiers these days.
1.An American self-help comedy? Jim Carrey comedy?
2.Los Angeles, Griffith Park, the Hollywood Bowl, the Lincoln Nebraska sequences? Ordinary, audiences identifying with the characters and place? The score?
3.The title, the opening, Carl and his phone, messages, refusing everything? In the video store, Peter calling him? His being forced to go to the celebration? The engagement? His friends, letting them down? Seeing Stephanie, the divorce, with her friend? The crash and the fall on the floor of the restaurant, the slapstick? The introduction to his story? His work, the bank, the loans, Norm and his repartee? Yet a recluse?
4.Nick, loud, the brochure about saying yes, his reactions, his friends, their criticising Carl, his decision to go to the seminar?
5.The seminar, Terrence Bundley, the guru, his dramatic entrance, his slogans, the adoring crowds? The spotlight on Carl, Terrence going to him, forcing him to say yes, forcing a covenant with himself to say yes?
6.Afterwards, the vagrant, Nick urging him to say yes, giving him the ride, letting him use his phone, giving him the money? Running out of petrol, walking, meeting Alison at the gas station, the lift on her bike, taking his photo?
7.His saying no to the man with the brochure, no to Tilly? Yet taking the brochure, helping Tilly? Her reaction – and the sexual advance? The effect on him? (After having fallen down the stairs and had accidents thinking that this was because he said no?)
8.Norm, his personality, at work, Carl and his saying yes to the variety of people for small loans? Lee and his bike, the woman with the cakes of celebrities? Being called in to the boss, the congratulations for his initiative, the promotion, the phone call, having to sack Norm? Condolences with him?
9.Going to see the band, watching, its absurdity and performance, seeing Alison? Sharing with her, a kinship with her, his agreement to go to the exercise at 6.00am, his being forced to the party, getting there on time? His joy with her, the group taking photos? His learning to fly, learning Korean – all the things to say yes to? The effect on him?
10.Sharing with Alison, the variety of episodes illustrating the yes? His drinking, the brawl at the hotel? The decision to go to Lincoln, being spontaneous, going to the museum, going to the match at the Bowl and dressing up, being seen on television? Going to the chicken factory and Carl fainting? The sudden arrest, the nature of the interrogation by the FBI, being a terrorist suspect? The misinterpretation of all that he did? Peter explaining?
11.Peter and Lucy, their friendship, the bridal shower, Carl agreeing to host it? The Korean salesgirl and her being surly, talking to her in Korean? His depression and forgetting the shower, calling in the debts for all the people he gave loans to, the party in the bar and the general happiness? Tilly and the friend going off?
12.Norm and his Harry Potter parties, the refreshments, watching the films again? The Three Hundred party? Carl having to console Norm? Introducing him to the Korean girl – and their hitting it off?
13.Alison and her being hurt, the airport, thinking that he did not want to be with her, not answering her phone?
14.Carl going to Terrence Bundley, the crash, in hospital, the discussions about yes and no, Terrence being more human, explaining how you had to reflect on decisions and say yes or no?
15.Carl getting Lee’s bike, its power, riding recklessly, joining Alison?
16.The happy ending – and a film about self-help and betterment of personality? American style?
