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Yes Man (2008)
  
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Director:
Peyton Reed |
COUNTRY
USA/Australia |
GENRE
Comedy/Romance |
NORWEGIAN
TITLE
Yes
Man |
RUNNING
TIME
104
minutes |
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Producer:
Jim Carrey
David Heyman
Richard D. Zanuck |
Screenwriter (based on the book by Danny Wallace):
Nicholas Stoller
Jarrad Paul
Andrew Mogel |
Review
There is a scene in
Yes Man in which our two protagonists, Carl and Allison, go to the
airport and decide to take a weekend trip to the destination of the
first available flight. They end up in Lincoln, Nebraska, which at first
glance perhaps isn't the most glamorous place in the world (a saccharine
romantic comedy would probably send them to Paris), but also not the
strangest place to end up in (a more wacky comedy could have sent them to
Juneau or Spitsbergen, for that matter). My point here is that this
segment largely epitomises what Yes Man is about, because making
a random trip to Lincoln, Nebraska and visiting the telephone museum or
the local slaughterhouse is both exotic and mundane at the same time.
These are the kinds of regular but unordinary things Yes Man
wants the routine-bound, sofa-sitting "no man" to start doing. None of us could
actually go as far as Carl Allen does here in order to become a
yes man, but we could all jump on a surprise flight and visit a museum
in a place we've never dreamt of visiting before.
So that is the essence
of Yes Man, the latest and quite inspirational Jim Carrey film.
The synopsis and premise might sound like a slightly modified
version of Liar Liar,
but the tone and atmosphere are rather different. Granted,
Liar Liar is
a funnier film which utilises Carrey's comedic talents more extensively,
but in Yes Man, the funnyman strikes a human tone as well – a tone he rarely
deployed in the early years of his career. And he projects the simple
but powerful message of Yes Man quite convincingly, helped by
Peyton Reed's unassuming direction. If a romantic comedy, in addition to
getting quite a few laughs, actually makes you want to become a wee bit
more positive and maybe say yes to something the next day that you would
normally decline, then Yes Man must be considered an effective
film that is worth two hours of anyone's time.
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