Carrey makes this great film even better

Rating: 8/10 (18 May 2000)

Rating: ***1/2 out of ****
"Man on the Moon" opened in Brazil two weeks ago, together with two other films: "Down to You" and "Hanging Up". It was released in the biggest number of screens, received the best reviews, but it seems that the audience didn't like it very much. Well, Andy Kaufman is almost unknown here (I confess I had never heard about him before reading about the film). Only the people who watch "Taxi" on Sony Entertainment Television may know him. But I'm sure that about 60% of the people who went to the movies to watch "Man on the Moon" left disappointed because they were expecting a slapstick comedy- the last thing it is. In the audience I attended to, there was a group of stupid teen girls (whose favorite film is probably "She's All That") who didn't seem to get the point of the amazing, hilarious beginning. At the end, I heard one of them complaining: 'This is the worst movie I've ever seen.' And another one said a kind of nonsense thing: 'This is even worse than "Sleepy Hollow"!'  another great film, I have to say. So I got very angry and thought: 1- They don't know that this is a biography about a REAL person. 2- They've never heard about a genius named Milos Forman; "Amadeus", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" mean nothing for them. 3- They were expecting "Dumb and Dumber- Part 2" or "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective- Part 3". 4- I'm sure they also didn't like "The Truman Show". 5- They are futile, disposable people who should be ignored (I'm sure they would make annoying jokes about the frog rain in "Magnolia", like 'Duh! Senseless!').
"Man on the Moon" is another great creation of Milos Forman. He has been criticized for making an empty film, without telling details about Andy Kaufman's life, showing only his shows, his polemics. But that's how biographies should be. Who cares if Andy lost his puppy dog hit by a car when he was a child? Who cares if his parents used to fight? Who cares if he had problems at school? What is important in the life of a person, more specifically an artist, is how he/she became famous, how he/she faced it etc. And "Man on the Moon" shows it perfectly well. Milos Forman had already done masterpieces as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Amadeus" (another unusual biography) and, in my opinion, "Valmont". "The People vs. Larry Flynt" was also a different kind of biography and was almost perfect. That's what happens in "Man on the Moon"- it is almost a masterpiece. As in Carrey's previous picture, "The Truman Show", there is a small, almost imperceptible thing missing. Here I guess it's the presence of Courtney Love's character in Kaufman's life. She could have been quite more significant here.
But this small flaw can be left by the side in the middle of so many qualities: an amazing director, a great screenplay (with hilarious moments and some emotional ones) and, above everything, Jim Carrey. It was just prejudice, I think, his snub at the Oscar. This was the Oscar of snubs: "Magnolia", Paul Thomas Anderson, "Eyes Wide Shut", Stanley Kubrick, "Being John Malkovich", Cameron Diaz, Reese Witherspoon and there it goes. But the Academy should have forgotten Carrey's mistakes of the past (hey! Hilary Swank was in "The Next Karate Kid"!). I guess it's the best performance of his career- by far. God! I don't know almost anything about Andy Kaufman, but Carrey resurrects him. Personification, whatever! HE IS ANDY KAUFMAN!
"Man on the Moon" is a must-see- specially if you like Forman's style of film-making. There are many memorable scenes: the beginning, the concert in Carnegie Hall, the funeral and the ambiguous ending- ambiguous in a good way. It's superbly directed, acted and written. Even if it can't be between Forman's masterpieces, it is something worthy of much recognition.