The Power Of "Yes"

Rating: 7/10 (23 October 2009)

In all honesty Jim Carrey sometimes grates on me. He's funny, but far too often his humour becomes too over the top and his characters become cartoons rather than real people. When he keeps that to a minimum, though, he can work very well, and he managed to pull that balance off with "Yes Man." Of the Carrey movies I've seen I'd probably compare this most to "Bruce Almighty" - not in terms of plot but in terms of the type of character he was playing and the challenges the character was facing. In this, Carrey played Carl Allen, a loan officer at a bank who leads a pretty empty, lonely and unproductive life. One day, a buddy convinces him to attend a self-help seminar, where he learns to start living life by saying "yes" to every opportunity that comes up. Terrence Stamp, by the way, was absolutely bang-on as the self-help guru.
Thanks to the power of "yes" Carl's life moves into overdrive. Suddenly he's involved with everything and everyone: from guitar lessons, flying lessons and Korean lessons to a new job as an executive to a new love - and he's loving his life. Finally, though, his new love interest, played by Zooey Deschanel, reminds him of reality. She tells him that she loves him and asks him to move in with her. Of course he says "yes," but when she finds out about the program she backs out - does he really want to or is he just following the program? Can she believe a word he says to her? The key to the movie in the end is whether Carl can learn to really live his own life rather than just being enslaved to the program that originally seemed to have given him freedom.
It's an interesting premise for a movie, very well written and well acted, and, in the end, both thought-provoking and a lot of fun. 7/10