What a script!

Rating: 9/10 (22 October 2004)

Now, at last some gold among the manure! It's been quite some time since I've truly enjoyed a movie script!
This one is sarcastic, inventive, and both cocky and self-mocking, which is a great deal for a movie script. Not many writers/producers/directors in Hollywood dare to say "yeah, that's a bullshit, of course, and it's been done before, naturally, but what the hell, it's a great movie so shut the **** up and watch it!" When after about 15-20 minutes of the movie you start to think it's just another "Vanilla Sky"/"Abre Los Ojos", the authors tell you "yeah, you got it right, man, but that's life so there's no 3rd millennium wonders with mirror floors here, only a dirty entrance with narrow corridors behind it, and a secretary printing that officially-looking yellow cartons that you probably thought was a sign of wealth on a desktop printer."
I've always believed that Jim Carrey was a great actor, rubber face notwithstanding, and this movie proves I wasn't too much wrong. In general, the actors do a great job and it's a pleasure to watch it.
The only bad (or, better said, not so good) thing about the movie that I can think about now (one day after having it watched) is the most obvious one: it's a marathon movie. In other words, if you don't have enough patience and if the first 20 minutes of the movie didn't get you really interested - you'll quit the race after the minute 25, breathless. The movie is way too long and slow-paced in the middle section, the adventures, although very witty and pretty interesting, become unbearable as a bubble gum after three hours of chewing on it. It starts to feel more like Montmartre than Beverly Hills, which probably has something to do with the fact that the director/co-writer (and the other co-writer, too) are French.
Anyways, it's another Charlie Kaufmann's script, pretty fresh, sufficiently ironic, solidly directed and (IHMO) brilliantly playacted. If it wasn't so chewed-on in the middle - it would beat his previous movie - "Adaptation", which still remains at the top of my personal list of best scripts in contemporary cinema.
If you like interesting movies and mind games, and if you aren't allergic to any of the above mentioned ingredients - than go for it, it's a GREAT movie!