Mr. Fred Blassie And The Breakfast Mess

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2006)

The title of "Man on the Moon" was taken from REM's musical tribute to Andy Kaufman, a comedian/performance artist from the 1970s and 1980s who dotted the entertainment landscape of that era in many unforgettable ways.
Kaufman (Jim Carrey) is brought to life by Carrey in a way no other actor could have accomplished, and it is clear from the film that Carrey himself, and his over-the-top performances, had been influenced by Andy. One got the impression from the film that Carrey reacted as we might expect a Bishop or a Cardinal to react when told he is to play the Pope. Carrey's reverence for Kaufman shines through in every aspect of an incredibly deep, Oscar-worthy performance.
Carrey overshadows what is actually a very strong cast. Danny DeVito (George Shapiro) plays Andy's agent, and since those two actors worked together for years on Taxi, DeVito's personal history with Andy bolstered his ability to grasp the role. Shapiro is written as a man caught between a one-of-a-kind artist and the establishment attempting to profit from him by fitting him into their little box, a box Andy not only thought, but lived outside of.
Courtney Love (Lynne Margulies) was well-suited for her role as Andy's wife, much as she was suited for People vs. Larry Flynt. Her energy and feistiness made her believable as the one woman who could handle the man no one else ever could. Paul Giamatti (Bob Zmuda) is Andy's best friend and co-conspirator, and has gone on to much bigger and better things after an excellent performance here. Appearances are made by most of the rest of the cast of Taxi (except for Tony Danza), while other figures in the movie have their real-life versions blending in with the crowd, such as George Shapiro as a club owner who fires Andy, Lynne Margulies as one of the mourners at the funeral. Jim Carrey's ex-wife also appears as the waitress in the recreation of "My Breakfast With Blassie," which also includes Jerry Lawler and Fred Blassie.
I never obsessed over Andy's antics as they were occurring, but I was aware of them. His "Mighty Mouse" theme performance on SNL's first show was a spoof of the "musical guest" concept (and brilliant), while the wrestling incidents, though staged, fooled almost all of the major media, who had grown so weary of pranks from Andy that they just assumed that his announcement that he had cancer was just another trick, but the "punchline" was sadly true, and Andy died much too young (35). It is true that Andy continued to bus tables in LA after working on Taxi, to keep his "independence." His reply to people who said he looked like Andy Kaufman was honest and brilliant: "I get that all the time," he would say.
Of all of Andy's work, "My Breakfast With Blassie" is the one which history will smile upon the most. Of all of Jim Carrey's work, this film is likely to enjoy the same fate. It's a shame that the Academy did not take a grown-up view of a mature comedian giving a mature performance that rivals anything done by any actor of that year, or even historically.
The film captures Andy's brilliance, creativity, and refusal to change himself or his act for his audience, instead choosing to make us come to him and understand what he was saying, without any help or explanation from him.