Say Yes to Yes ManMy sister suggested that we take in a movie this evening, and I could have said no, but I knew it would be good for her to get away from the kids for a couple of hours. The movie we saw was Yes Man, featuring Jim Carrey.
Terrific film, very funny with great characters. The plot is fairly similar to Liar, Liar; Carrey plays a lowly loan officer at a bank whose wife has divorced him and who habitually says "No" to everything. A friend coaxes him to come to a seminar that advertises "Yes is the New No", with a revival-type spirit. Carrey gets singled out for some one-on-one treatment and agrees to say "Yes" to everything.
Coming out of the seminar a homeless man asks him for a lift, then borrows his cellphone. Carrey drops him off in a park and discovers that he's run out of gas and his cellphone battery is dead, so he has to hoof it to the nearest gas station. Sounds like Yes isn't working for him, right?
But at the gas station he meets a pretty girl who offers him a ride back to the park on her scooter, and before you know it, he's got a girlfriend again. He starts approving loans he would never have allowed before, and the top management promotes him for his excellent production. He takes up guitar lessons and ends up coaxing a guy down from the ledge by playing him a song.
Of course, not everything goes smoothly; in a key scene the Feds have noticed that he's learning Korean, and how to fly and he has also signed up for an Iranian bride, so they arrest him on suspicion of being a terrorist. And in the end he does have to learn to say no to some things.
But it's all great fun, with Carrey's usual terrific physical comedy and sense of timing hitting on all cylinders. Highly recommended!
Labels: Jim Carrey, Movie Reviews, Yes Man
