Jim Carrey's "YES Man", A DVD Review

Jim Carrey is a bank executive with a boring job. After being dumped by his wife he’s living a life of quiet desperation with rental DVD’s as his only companions. He gets passed over for a promotion and even best friend Brad Cooper can’t bring him out of his lethargy until one day he runs into an old friend that invites him to a self-transformation seminar that changes his whole life.

Terence Stamp is fantastic as the evangelical guru of Yes Man, one of those “Can Only Be Made In America” New Age seminars, which reminded me of my own experience with America’s finest “Go Get It Man” gurus. It was Werner Erhard’s EST and his ingenious Americanisation of Zen that brought me out of my cocoon years ago. I don’t know how I could have survived in a very tough business without those two weekends of pep training.

Zooey Deschanel is the free spirit on a scooter, part-time singer, part-time exercise coach, singing weird lyrics in a tavern that Jim would never have gone to if he hadn’t taken the seminar. “I know my singing is really bad, but I enjoy it” she says, “The world is a playground.” She’s so cute with her childish innocence and baby eyes, I don’t think this movie could have succeeded if anyone else had played that part. Zooey is a match made in heaven for Jim.

This is a much more mature and subdued Jim Carrey than what we’ve been used to, but it works beautifully for great comedy. There’s still the occasional Jim Carrey gigs and gimmicks, but he doesn’t overdo it, and he doesn’t need to resort to facials to try to make us laugh. He weaves an absolutely hilarious, effortlessly flowing story with Zooey and all the other cast that were right on the spot, like his Australian boss that’s a closet Harry Potter kid. The old lady next door is a blast, proving that you can be young and sexy at any age if you really want to.

This is also a tender love story and a feel-good movie with a message, that you can change your life if you can change your attitude, and what you think of as bad may be a blessing in disguise.

For me the laughs never let up throughout the movie, like when they were arrested by the FBI, an “Only possible in America” gig. “You approved a loan for fertiliser, and nobody goes to Nebraska for an exciting weekend” says the special agent.