False positive

So it's spring break this week and while I've still got plenty of work to do, there's a ton of movies over at the budget theater that I need to catch up on, so I'll try and get to as many of them as possible. So be on the lookout for more reviews as the week progresses.

We'll start things off though with Jim Carrey's latest comedy, Yes Man. I'll admit that nothing really stood out to me from the previews for this one. The premise seemed similar to Liar Liar and I didn't find myself laughing that much. It turns out that my instincts ended up being fairly accurate.

The premise here is that Jim Carrey plays Carl, a pessimistic banker who jumps at the chance to say no to every offer put in front of him until he takes a motivational seminar in which the guru gets him to start saying yes to everything asked of him. Hopefully in reading that sentence some warning bells should already start ringing in your head that this sounds like a pretty flimsy concept.

First of all, we're never really given an adequate explanation as to why Carl is so pessimistic. There is some mention of a failed marriage, but that idea isn't really explored enough to make us buy that as the justification. After this brief introduction into the character, Carl runs into a Contrivance #1 aka John Michael Higgins character. These two supposedly know each other, but we're not told where they know each other from. Higgins' encourages Carl to attend this positivity seminar and soon we're thrust right into the main plot.

Of course, all of the things asked of Carl seemed like they'll go terrible if he agrees to them, but he does and then end up turning out great for him. The best thing is he ends up meeting Contrivance #2, Allison (played amicably by Zooey Deschanel). Being a free spirit herself, she really likes how spontaneous and optimistic Carl is. We then spend the crux of the film watching them do zany things like breaking into the Hollywood Bowl or flying to Lincoln, Nebraska. Any of this sound exciting yet? All the while, we're supposed to be laughing at Carrey's zany, spur-of-the-moment antics, but instead it just appears that this character has some sort of mental deficiency.

Carrey's character is flawed in so many ways that it basically ruins the entire movie. Aside from acting like a lunatic, he doesn't come across as likeable when he pessimistic or optimistic. It's hard to root for someone who is so stupid to believe that saying yes to everything is the answer to all of life's problems. By the end of the film, he learns the lesson that while it's important to be positive, major decisions require critical thought, not just blindly agreeing to everything. How hard was that to figure out? The audience figures this out waaaaay before the main character does, which just makes for a frustrating experience.

There are an assortment of subplots introduced that could have been potentially interesting like Carl's friends abusing his inability to say no, or the fact that Carl works at a bank and is suddenly giving loans to everyone who asks for one. In our current financial times, this could have been particularly pertinent, but it's abandoned for more wacky Carrey antics.

Any of these minor stories are spurned in favor of the cliched romance which of course involves Contrivance #3 causing Allison and Carl to briefly break up when she realizes he's 'not the man I thought he was' only for them to quickly reconcile by the movies end.

Nothing in the movie feels real or genuine. Perhaps the best example of that is one of the final scenes, which in a way mirrors one of the final scenes in The 40-Year Old Virgin. Without giving too much away, they both involve the main character on a bike chasing after their love interest. If you do see this movie, you'll understand how cheesy and lame this scene comes off as in comparison to the emotion that's packed into the scene from Virgin.

I was excited to see Carrey come back to the genre that brought him, the slapstick comedy, but this was not the right vehicle for him. The film tries to put a fresh spin on a tried and true method of storytelling, but fails completely. Nothing rings true about the story or the characters or the message. If I were you, I don't see a need to waste your time renting it. It'll probably show up on the USA channel fairly quickly anyways, so if you're really a big Jim Carrey fan and you haven't seen it, you can watch it then. Otherwise, just say no to Yes Man. Grade: C-