Review: Yes Man

I remember fondly the Jim Carrey of my youth, the one who ran headlong onto an airport tarmac in "Dumb and Dumber," but I have long since accepted that he is no longer the same actor. Frankly, he's better off now. Full disclosure: I adore serious Carrey, given that "The Truman Show" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" are both among my favorite films. However, with "Yes Man," he returns to the territory that made him a star: high-concept movies that allow him to turn his face into rubber and his body into the world's punching bag.

Being that this is a high-concept movie, the entire plot can be synopsized in a sentence or two. Carl Allen (Carrey) is a maladroit bank employee who hasn't been out with his friends or done anything fun in nearly three years, ever since his ex-wife left him. However, he has a chance encounter with an old co-worker, who sells him on a Tony Robbins-like "Yes!" seminar. Carl goes, and the guru (Terrence Stamp) shows him how joyous his life can become if he says yes to anything and everything offered to him.

The premise itself is extremely similar to "Liar, Liar," but where that film allowed Carrey to unleash his id all over those around him, there's something uncomfortable about this premise. For much of the film, Carl is terrified of the things he's saying yes to, but is essentially a slave to the premise, and that's the reason this movie doesn't quite work; we like Carl, well enough that we don't want to see him suffer through being fellated by an octogenarian or being stuck in the middle of nowhere in the California hills after offering a ride and his cell phone to a homeless man. The latter at least has a positive effect, as it leads to him meeting Allison (Zooey Deschanel), a free spirit who becomes attracted to Carl because of his seemingly carefree way of approaching life.

This romance is what saves the film from being pointless, as Carl really begins to come alive (both in the film and to the audience) once Allison comes into his life and makes him push his boundaries. Inevitably, there is that moment in every romantic comedy where the film's central conceit leads to the lovers being separated, but unlike many, the reason given here actually makes enough sense that it doesn't seem as silly or unreasonable as they often do.

What really helps the film along is the way that it uses all the things Carl picks up while on his journey later on. In most movies, his learning Korean, taking flight lessons and signing off on every loan request in his bank would simply serve as a brief laugh before being discarded. Here, though, Carl turns into a sort of superhero, using everything he's learned to better the lives of others. The film's funniest scene, which I won't spoil here, involves Carl using his guitar lessons to save a man's life, and this (along with a few others) gives the film a heartfelt center that feels natural, rather than forced.

The trouble is that while there is heart here, there are too many dumb sight gags. At the screening I attended, the audience didn't start laughing until about halfway into the film, and this might very well be due to them being raised on the same Jim Carrey that I talked about earlier; because they know all his physical comedy tricks, they don't earn the same easy laughs that they used to, and only when the film ups its game in the second half does the audience start to go along with it. I'm all for a slow build in a film, it doesn't happen enough, but it shouldn't take this long in a broad comedy.