Review of Man on the Moon (1999) by Christian B — 28 Jan 2012

This movie was nearly perfect. My only complaint about this movie is that it did not cover the early life of Andy Kauffman and that it did not really show or discuss why he was the way he was. Maybe I watched this movie in the wrong fashion because its intention might have just been to profile comedy and performance art, and just just happen to be about Andy Kauffman (almost like how The People vs. Larry Flynt was about freedom of speech instead of simply being a biopic about Flynt).

So maybe this movie's legendary director, the great Milos Forman, was just making a movie about comedy, instead of a traditional biopic of Kauffman. I would have just liked to learn a little more about the man himself.

With that being said, I have nothing but praise for this movie. The movie starts out weird and very nontraditional (you'll know what I'm talking about within the first three minutes). This isn't your average movie. It takes a little warming up before you get comfortable watching this movie. The same can be said about Kauffman.

Kauffman was the big practical joker of his day. He was the boy who cried wolf. When Kauffman was on stage or attending an event, you would have no idea what to expect from him. His sense of humor (If you want to call it that. Kauffman really had no idea what was funny. He had to ask others what they thought was funny. He considered himself as being a song and dance man.) was strange to say the least.

Kauffman enjoyed playing elaborate pranks on audiences with his partner in crime, who was portrayed by Paul Giamatti. Kauffman's antics reminded me of Borat and Joaquin Phoenix.

The film is obviously well directed by two time Academy Award winning director Milos Forman. The film looks great and it has Forman's signature stamp on it. Jim Carrey's performance was amazing. He really became Andy Kauffman. However, it isn't much of a stretch for Carrey to play a totally deranged and insane performer. The brilliance of Carrey's performance can be seen in the sympathy the audience feels for Kauffman. The sympathy felt for him can be shocking considering that in the film he can be seen as being conceited and sexist (these are accusations on his act, rather than the man himself).

Carrey's acting is very powerful in this movie especially in the final thirty minutes when the movie takes on a radically different tone. The last thirty minutes of this movie had at least three incredibly moving and powerful scenes. That's quite a compliment to give to a movie that was labeled as a comedy (at the Golden Globes it was nominated for Best Picture Comedy/Musical and Carrey won for Best Leading Actor in a Comedy/Musical. Carrey acknowledged in his speech that he felt the movie was a drama at heart.).

I'm going to be honest with you here: I almost cried at the end of this movie. It's that powerful. I think this movie was unfairly criticized by some critics because of their own views of Kauffman and their complaints that this was not a traditional biopic. I can see how someone could label this movie as a group of episodic scenes abut Kauffman, but at least all of these episodes lead somewhere and they are inter-connected and really show the story of his adult life.

I would strongly recommend this movie because of the wide range of emotions it displays. You'll have a few laughs, shed a few tears, enjoy yourself, and you might even learn something.