"The Pathetic"
by Scott Mantz

"The Majestic"
Jim Carrey, Laurie Holden
Directed by Frank Darabont

The last picture show! It's a wonderful life for Laurie Holden and Jim Carrey in "The Majestic"

As the saying goes, "you can't re-heat a souffle."

Take The Beatles, for instance. Sure, they made some of the greatest music of all time, but part of its appeal was the context in which it was made. In short, it was very much of its time, but when today's musicians try to emulate their sound, they end up sounding like second-rate posers with somewhat enjoyable, but ultimately forgettable music (at least, most of the time).

The same can be said about director Frank Darabont's "The Majestic." It's quite obvious that Darabont went out of his way to make the film Capra-esque, but unfortunately, the results are merely (dare I say it) Crapa-esque. Despite a solid--if periodically over the top--performance from Oscar-wannabe Jim Carrey, "The Majestic" is so deep in contrived sentimentality, you practically need a life preserver to stay above it.

The time is 1951. When Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is targeted by the House Un-American Activities Committee for suspected Communist activities, he is blacklisted from his job as an up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriter. Devastated by his change in fortune, Peter drives up the coast and gets into a serious car accident following a drunken binge. Suffering from amnesia, Peter wanders into the depressed small town of Lawson, California, where he is mistaken for Luke Trimble, a local war hero who was listed as missing in action during World War II. Luke's alleged re-appearance gives hope to the people of Lawson--especially Luke's father Harry (Martin Landau) and his long lost love Adele (Laurie Holden). As they proceed to re-introduce him to his life--through the refurbishment of the town's run-down movie theater, the Majestic--Peter's memories come flooding back to him. The question is, with two lives now up for grabs, which one will he choose?

Frank Darabont is clearly a director with a sensitive side--as evident by the deeply moving, enormously inspirational prison drama "The Shawshank Redemption" (regarded by many as one of the finest films of the 90's)--but he is also a filmmaker who tends to be too self-indulgent for his own good. The same elements that made "Shawshank" so endearing were clearly evident in his 1999 follow-up "The Green Mile" (another prison drama), but at more than 3 hours long, the film was watered down by its own excess.

Now Darabont goes to a prison of a different kind--this one resembling a quaint small town--with "The Majestic." This time around, he tries so hard to manipulate your emotions, he practically hits you over the head with a six-pack of Kleenex. The battle between good and evil that served as the backdrop for his previous films are brought to the fore in "The Majestic," but by simplistically trivializing the Hollywood blacklist trials of the 1950's, most of the characters end up acting like cartoonish buffoons. Also, while Darabont's attention to lush period detail and picturesque cinematography are top notch, the slow pace (and long running time--over 2 1/2 hours) tends to outweigh some of the more inspirational aspects of the movie.

Jim Carrey obviously wants an Oscar so bad that it hurts, but he should stop drawing attention to himself every time he takes on a "serious" role and just let his performance speak for itself. Despite the hype surrounding 1998's "The Truman Show," Carrey was able to leave his comedic talents in the background in order to prove that he can handle more dramatic fare. In the case of "The Majestic," while he is certainly convincing as the Jimmy Stewart-ish American everyman who's suddenly forced to reconsider his own identity, there are times when his melodramatic delivery just doesn't ring true.

The supporting cast members are effective enough, even if they are riddled with cliches and predictable intentions. The always reliable Martin Landau puts in a decent--if somewhat sappy--performance as the father who is desperate to have his son back. At the same time, up-and-comer Laurie Holden (who bares a striking resemblance to Carrey's real life ex-wife Lauren Holly) also puts in a believable--if unspectacular--turn as the small town girl who's looking to re-connect with her long lost love.

There's a scene in the middle of "The Majestic" where Martin Landau points out the importance of restoring the run-down movie theater, and it pretty much sums up why going to the movies was, is, and will always will be such an enchanting experience. Once you get into the theater, you know that for the next couple of hours, you can forget about your problems and escape into another world with the shared experience of other moviegoers. It's a magical, uplifting speech, but unfortunately, that's about the only thing that's magical about "The Majestic." Otherwise, this balcony is closed.

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