When I wear this mask, I can be whatever I want...

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2003)

A quite important number of movies paid a tribute to Tex Avery's cartoons like "who framed Roger Rabbit?". "The Mask" ranks among them and is a great success, although this movie takes back some characteristics suitable to American movies and particularly this one: the transition for a character from a low level to the degree of hero. Here, the main protagonist (Jim Carrey) is introduced as a clumsy person in the beginning. But the discovery of a weird mask will turn his life upside down and make him become the hero of "Edge City". This mask will also allow him to conquer Cameron Diaz's heart and to triumph over a gang who wished to take the city under control.
As a consequence, the movie uses a globally thin and convenient screenplay but fortunately, it's compensated by the funny moments where "the Mask" tops the bill and this is the occasion to intervene a fanciful, but efficient humor that finds again the devastating tone of the cartoons from the forties and the fifties. It also doesn't hesitate in parodying the gangster movies from the thirties and even "gone with the wind".
Jim Carrey's performance remains one of his best to date. He's well directed and never hams it up unlike the silly "Ace Ventura in Africa". Let's add an amusing description of the Kellaway cop (Peter Riegert).
A movie eventually entertaining enough to sustain the interest in spite of its weaknesses.