Being Jim Carrey

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2004)

Wow. What a film.
(Spoilers herein)
This movie takes a little while to get going, and then there are moments when it lags. The reason for this is clear: with the exception of the ending, all the scenes that aren't inside Carrey's brain are disappointing. Fortunately, the vast majority of the movie is inside his brain, and these scenes really shine. Carrey is an unbelievable actor.
This film is about many things, but it boils down to fate, love, and the pain we're willing to put ourselves through to get love. Carrey and Winslet are total polar opposites, but they belong together. They fall in love, fight, break up, erase their memories, and fall in love again. And then when they discover they've been in love before and ended up breaking each other's hearts, they stay together anyway. Why? Because that's love. You can't predict it. You can't fight it. You can't stop it. And you shouldn't try.
There are only two parts of this movie that I would change. First is the side story of Mary (the receptionist) and the doctor. It really drags down the rest of the film, and it's a totally unnecessary because it's just a plot device to set it up so that Winslet and Carrey find out they've fallen in love before. And that's the other thing I would change. Since the real point is that they fell in love all over again, the film could have ended with that. They didn't have to find out it happened before.
But I'm knitpicking. This is an amazing movie. It's too bad it was released so early in the year, because I think that may hurt Carrey as far as Oscar nominations. I'm not going to say he should win the award here (maybe...but lets see what other films come out this year), but he should definitely be considered for a nomination. We're witnessing an amazing transformation from goofball comedian to bona fide actor, something we saw faint glimpses of in "The Truman Show" and "Man on the Moon"