Review of The Majestic (2001) by Jason B — 03 May 2008

I like this film because it is old-fashioned, and corny like a Capra film, hence Capra-corn, but that works for me. Jim Carrey plays a very unfortunate Hollywood scriptwriter who gets on the wrong side of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, for having gone to a Communist group when in college.

He gets very drunk and drives away, his life having fallen apart. He crashes his car and ends up washed ashore on the beach of a quiet town, where he is taken in by a man who thinks he is his long lost war hero son.

This is a very long film, slow paced, so there is time to follow several plots and subplots concerning the hero's efforts to help get the town cinema up and running. The town never recovered from the second world war as they lost many soldiers fighting.

The hero gets together with the girl who was dating the one who left. She is not sure if he really is the guy who went to war, but she falls in love anyway. The acting is excellent and believable, even if the plot is a bit unlikely.

At the end, the hero is up against the anti-Communist government types, and this was the strongest scene for me. I really liked Jeffrey DeMunn in this film, who played the affable town mayor. David Ogden Stiers was good.

Best of all, Jim Carrey, playing a dramatic role, and I wish he only played dramatic roles as he is excellent when he's not doing that tedious "goofy" shtick. An excellent film, a bit like The Shawshank Redemption, as by the same director, and just as long and slow paced, but also a film that stays with you and makes you think.

When I first saw it it inspired me to read up on American history of the nineteen fifties and the setting up of the FBI. Very interesting. One of my favourite films.