Review of The Majestic (2001) by Travis Y — 13 May 2008

Although The Majestic is certainly a film with an agenda, it is more importantly a concert of finely tuned instruments playing a sensitive, moving composition that never fails to entertain. It hits all the right notes too, even if the mildly subversive elements of this cautionary tale tend to masquerade as delicious slices of wholesome American nostalgia.

First, I should warn you: this is NOT a Jim Carrey movie. If you want to see Rubberface goofing around making artless observations about bathroom habits then go watch Ace Ventura or The Mask, or something equally subhumorous...this is not the movie for you.

Here, Carrey actually acts, and by the way, he's really good at it. It's 1954 and Jim Carrey finds himself through a series of accidents in a small southern California town with his memory wiped clean. But to the townspeople, his face seems strangely familiar. This town really isn't like every other small town though...from this town, 62 young men sacrificed their lives during the course of WWII, and the friends and family they left behind have been coping with an enormous loss ever since. Because this film was released after 9/11 it resonates in ways much more profound than the filmmakers could have intended. You feel the impact in the heart more than the head.

In the best role of his career, Martin Landau takes one look at Jim Carrey, and sees his only son Luke, missing in action and presumed dead for 9 and a half years. Landau lives above the Majestic, the long neglected movie theater closed down after the war. He decides to reopen it in an act of tremendous optimism, and the whole town comes out of their rut and pitches in with the restoration. Besides a father, Luke also discovers he had a beautiful fiancee (the very talented Laurie Holden, from The X-Files) and soon enough they rekindle a gentle courtship. Things seem to be shaping up nicely for "Luke" if in fact thatâ??s who he really is.

And that's where the plot takes a turn for better or worse.

We live in a fearful age, and the same is true in The Majestic...then and now there are lingering concerns about our liberty and freedom resting in the hands of the powerful and possibly corrupt. In the early 1950's the threat was communism, and the powerful were seated on the House UnAmerican Activites Committee. Without revealing too much about the plot, I will say that when Jim Carrey's character is subpoenaed to testify before the committee, he has to choose between his honor and what had been his life. These scenes in their audacity make this movie, and in spite of all the heavy drama, there are a few very funny moments.

The Majestic is the summa theologica of Frank Darabont, the man responsible for good films such as The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. He says that in Hollywood, the story has died. I don't think that is true though, at least in this case. Because this film is not a mournful requiem, it isn't the story of just a man, or a romance, or even a family. It's about us, about ordinary people living in dangerous times--like the townspeople in the film. And through a familiar-faced stranger they found a hero, and a hope they thought had died many years before.

The question is, can we do the same?