An Andy Kaufman Fan Enjoys the Movie, BUT...

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2000)

I liked the movie, but I have a little trouble with the hype. Jim Carrey does a great tribute to Andy Kaufman, and you can tell he got into the character and that he really cared about portraying him well. But the fact remains, Jim Carrey is NOT Andy Kaufman. Carrey is a highly-talented actor with a great range of physical humor, it cannot be denied. Andy Kaufman, on the other hand, was into strictly conceptual humor. His biggest physical trait was a disarming boyish innocence. As a comedian, he was much more limited than Carrey. His act was one whacky idea at a time, played to the hilt. He would "become" his concept, suppressing anything else in his personality for the duration of the act. Carrey is at a little disadvantage in trying to portray this. Maybe it's because he naturally brims with personality, always threatening to burst out.
Kaufman's concepts were almost always off the wall, which played well to a pot-smoking generation. He almost always was able to deliver the goods with a straight face. Whatever the weird concept, Kaufman always played it straight down the line. His "Taxi" work was a single shtick -- a non-English-speaking, borderline hysteric, very verbal and high-strung. It was, like his other routines, a single concept, although for some reason it was almost always funny. I remember his routines from Saturday Night Live, too. They were much funnier than the movie's recreation of them. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because Kaufman was LESS naturally funny than Carrey, which combined with the whacky concept, was somehow completely hysterical.
This is not an easy film to make. Milos Forman is a genius of a director. With Carrey and DeVito to work with, he's managed to capture a lot of the environment and spirit of Kaufman's life and work. Most importantly, he's made a good film, one that's not only watchable, but continuously engaging.
I can't help but recommend this movie. It'll be one you'll remember, at any rate.