A great study of a confounding character

Rating: 8/10 (15 August 2016)

I wasn't able to get my head around Andy Kaufman and who he was supposed to be, and after watching "Man on the Moon", I'm still not. I believe that's the point. Kaufman wasn't a comedian or even an actor as much as he was a practical joker. It wasn't enough for him to become another person: he wanted people to believe that person was completely separate from him, insisting on separate acting credits for his creations, and going as far as getting other actors to play the role right when everyone thought they had it pegged as Kaufman in a suit.
He was such a consummate joker that rumours persist he faked his own death. The movie leaves this ambiguous, as everything you have seen leading up to it makes you wonder if conspiracy theorists might be right for a change.
Carrey's performance is a thing of beauty. He doesn't look much like Kaufman did, but that doesn't matter. You forget it's him you're watching early on and he becomes the character, or characters. You don't know if the character is Kaufman, or Kaufman playing someone else, or someone else playing Kaufman, which is about right. I believe that's the point.