Powerful triumph for Milos Forman, Jim Carrey.

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 1999)

Going in I was leary. Andy Kaufmann, Jim Carrey? Kaufmann was described to me as a loony whenever described, and maybe he was, but what the writers, actors, and director Milos Forman have done is show us Andy (his true side?) at his best. I'm not going spoil anything but there's a few times in the film that you will be fooled by Andy's humor, but in the end, you'll love every second of it. You'll love Andy. You'll love Carrey for bringing Andy back for 2 hours. And it'll leave you questioning if any of it was really funny at all, or just a really damn good try.
I thought that this film towered over Forman's last exploration of a misleading personality, in "The People Vs. Larry Flynt", which struggled to show the torment of Hustler magazine's founder fighting for his first amendment rights. "Man on the Moon" doesn't waste time showing us every one of Andy's vices, but instead shows enough for us to know that he had them, but they didn't overcome him, the story stayed with Andy. In "Larry Flynt" it was sometimes diverted to his wife, Althea, also played by Courtney Love (as was Andy's girlfriend). In short, a touching history of a man trying his best in a business that sporadically awards greatness on a whim. In my mind, this film awards Andy his final world champion belt, in true form, thanks to Jim Carrey. A 9.8 out of 10, but I round down, so this fell to a 9 out of 10. But please, don't miss it... and don't walk out after the first 2 minutes, that was just a joke.