|
Review by Susan Granger
3 stars out of 4
Back in the '30s and '40s, director Frank Capra made a series of
sentimental movies with a message: "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington" and "It's a Wonderful Life." The recurrent theme was an idealistic
individual, an improbable, often reluctant hero, who bucks all odds and thwarts
materialistic, anti-social schemes. In this story, written by Michael Sloane and
set in 1951, a B-movie screenwriter Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is suspected of
being a Communist by the fascistic House Un-American Activities Commission.
Frantic about being blacklisted, he gets drunk, accidentally drives off a
bridge, loses his memory and winds up in the small Northern California town of
Lawson, where he's mistaken for Luke Trimble, a local W.W.II hero. Luke's father
(Martin Landau), owner of the dilapidated Majestic movie theater, truly believes
that his long-lost son has returned and Luke's fiancee (Laurie Holden), who has
just passed her law bar exam, is entranced. In fact, the whole town embraces him
- until his amnesia vanishes and his true identity is revealed. That's where
director Frank Darabont ("The Green Mile," "The Shawshank Redemption") clumsily
veers uncontrollably into cliché Capra-land. When Peter Appleton testifies
before HUAC, he champions the First Amendment while attacking the cynicism of
McCarthyism. The film suffers from shallow, anachronistic dialogue, slow pacing
and historical inconsistencies - not to mention the fact that most audiences
have no recollection of the Hollywood blacklist which is not fully explained. On
the other hand, Jim Carrey scores, evoking a young, vulnerable Jimmy
Stewart/Gary Cooper. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "The Majestic" is a
poignant, simplistic 7. It's a flag-waving fantasy that never quite makes it as
a fable.
Copyright © 2001 Susan Granger
|
out of 4
