Fine Performance in Fair Film

Rating: 5/10 (14 December 2000)

Andy Kaufman fell into the same "trap" as did Harry Houdini--having to "top one's self" with every performance. It just can't be done.

Like many excessive talents (Garland and Jolson come immediately to mind) such quests lead to career burnouts and fast trips to the morgue.

No matter how much the audience may scream and holler for more, the solo performer must hold back. It's a technique and lesson that, unfortunately, some performers are incapable of implementing. Kaufman was one such performer.
Not only did he give his all onstage, but his outrageous antics were carried over into his real life behavior, so that it became difficult to separate one from the other.
Jim Carrey does indeed "become" Kaufman, so successfully that his work may be held up as a model of the "Method" tehcnique. Alas, the interminable timing and delivery of the late comedian's lines, the quirkiness of his style, and the outlandish behavior of his offstage persona, make for some mighty uneven going in this presentation.
One is never quite sure just what makes this guy "tick." We cut from a brief childhood scene to a fully grown man, with little idea of what's actually going on in that unique brain. Just what's the driving force and need to make his entire lifestyle an avant guarde "happening"?

There's some pieces missing from the scripters' creation here, and it has to do with filling in some of the blanks to the Kaufman legend. Milos Forman's direction is professional enough, yet it too seems to lack insights to help render a fully realized portrait.
We end getting uneven highlights of the late comic's life and work, and an impressive and memorable job of characterization by the very talented Jim Carrey.