Somehow, it's a horrible moment, deep with irony, and the only scene in which Jim Carrey registers a believable emotion. It strikes home, and the film is effective in showing that, if nothing else, Kaufman is a symbol of our futile desire to circumvent our own limitations. It proves that only man's inner life provides him with the armour and weaponry to transcend, and whether it is by religion or surrealist comedy, it is the life of the mind which matters most. The film invites this kind of cerebral analysis, and indeed cannot be viewed without it. As a biopic it is less than thorough, as drama it is fragmented, and as comedy it is as acquired a taste as Kaufman himself, only moreso because this is not Kaufman, but Jim Carrey playing Kaufman.
Performance is a central theme of the film.
It is also its biggest problem. The confusion about where Kaufman drew the lines between person and personae is exemplified in the numerous pranks, stunts, and gags which made up most of his professional career. This is entirely appropriate given Kaufman's humour, which was itself surreal to the extent that it relied on sometimes unfathomable, certainly irrational connections between seemingly unconnected things. It is studied, cerebral, and 'arty' in the worst sense of the word, and offers few joys for the viewer, let alone inspiration. Worse yet, Jim Carrey, who must have seemed the ideal choice to play Kaufman, is so visibly involved in creating a thespian interpretation suited to this endeavour that he is never believable.