great acting from Carrey but nothing new about Kaufman

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2007)

This is one of the greatest roles Jim Carey has ever made, and certainly a role he did enjoy. The story and character of Andy Kaufman, erratic stand-up comedian who refused to be considered as a comedian, who shocked the audiences with his behavior and tricks, and manipulated them up to the point that even his tragic malady and early death were considered a farce by many fit very well Carrey and gave him the opportunity to mix his facial and body expressions with a tint of tragedy and a feeling of permanent search for a more depth truth beyond his clownesque acts. Add to this Danny DeVito's performance - also one of the best in his career and we have all reasons to consider 'Man on the Moon' as good entertainment.
And yet I also had a feeling of exploit watching this movie. I never heard about Andy Kaufman before, but after having made some Internet investigation I got the feeling that the film tries to match quite closely what have been the more spectacular moments in his career, without adding too much information about who really Kaufman was. Sure, Carrey's act is more than efficient, and the story is told fluently as you would expect from a fine director like Forman, but the almost documentary remake of Kaufman's schemes, the involvement of some of the people who were really engaged with Kaufman while alive and the homages and unfit ending gave me the feeling that the authors did not really have something new to say about Kaufman but rather try to play on the same story and characters as twenty years earlier. This feeling did not have the fun one must have had watching Kaufman's real acts.