Yes Man

Review by Anthony Morris
More Yes Man : Watch Trailer | Behind The Scenes Video

Someone once said that the Clint Eastwood classic Unforgiven was a film where the audience spent almost the entire running time waiting for Clint to turn into 'Clint' - the steely eyed killer he played in all his westerns. 

Jim Carrey (who worked with Eastwood early in his career) might have learnt that lesson well but he doesn't quite have the patience of Eastwood. 

So we only have to wait twenty minutes or so before the overly negative sad sack version of Jim Carrey is replaced with the more traditional "go nuts, act zany, and give off the impression of someone with a little too much fuel in the tank" Carrey that we have come to know and love. 

Well, hopefully you have come to see that version of him, because if you haven't there isn't a whole lot else going on here.

There is no denying that Yes Man is at times  both fairly shallow and story-wise an almost slap-dash film, barely hiding the fact it's a near direct photocopy of Carrey's last decent comedy Liar Liar.

Carrey plays Carl, a negative pain in the arse who gets dragged along to a "YES!" seminar where the guy running the show (Malcolm McDowell) forces him into agreeing to say "Yes" to every opportunity that comes his way.

Cue plenty of increasingly zany antics - clearly they cut out the scene where he agrees to also act like a hyperactive loon - tempered by a healthy dose of love as he meets the free spirited Alison (Zooey Deschanel).

And it is all going pretty well for Carl until the inevitable third-act twist...

The negative side of saying "Yes" to everything is touched upon, but only barely. While there is a paper thin idea of a "covenant" to keep Carl saying "Yes" through fear of dire consequences if he breaks it to keep things even flimsier - but no one cares about any of this stuff really. 

The whole point of this film is to let Carrey do his stuff and he does it well, while his bank job boss Rhys Darby (from Flight of the Conchords) is a kak and Deschanel makes for a perfect romantic counterbalance even if it does look like there is at least a twenty year age gap between them. 

You know what to expect from Carrey by now: if that is what you want, this does a rock solid job of filling your order.

3.5 out of 5