Director Report Card: Peyton Reed (2008)

6. Yes Man

There was a time, known as the wild and woolly nineties, when Jim Carrey was a huge movie star. He owed this success to a series of aggressively wacky, high concept comedies. Movies with easily understood log lines like “What if Jim Carrey was a detective that only handled animals?,” “What if Jim Carrey was a live action cartoon?,” and “What if Jim Carrey could never lie?” would all prove to be box office successes. Eventually, Carrey would make attempts at serious critical recognition, star in a few flops, and he would slid off the A-list. Despite that, producers still remembered all that “Ace Ventura” money, so a few more high concept Jim Carrey comedies have gotten made in the last nineteen years. After “What if Jim Carrey was God?,” we received “What if Jim Carrey had to say yes to everything?,” otherwise known as 2008's “Yes Man.”

Banker Carl Allen isn't very satisfied with his life. Still stinging from a divorce several years prior, he has largely withdrawn from his friends and spends most of his free time being a miserable fuck, watching movies alone in his ridiculously spacious apartment. After a chance meeting with an old friend at work, Carl is invited to a self-help seminar by Terrence Bundley. Bundley espouses the philosophy of “yes,” of saying yes to any question or request that is asked of, regardless of context. Though Carl is initially skeptical, he soon becomes an enthusiastic member of the yes movement, especially after it wins him a new girlfriend – quirky Allison – and success at work. But he'll soon find that saying yes to everything has its downsides too.

Going into “Yes Man,” my expectations were measured. In-between its gimmicky premise, a slumming star, and uninspiring trailer, I was expecting the most banal of mainstream studio comedies. And, in many ways, “Yes Man” is exactly the kind of movie you think it is. Any genuine emotion is squeezed out of the material by the stiflingly high-concept premise. There's a lot of crude sex jokes and broad slapstick, such as old ladies giving blowjobs or a semi-nude motorcycle ride. Yet, it must be said, I found “Yes Man” funnier than expected. The central concept is exaggerated to some likably absurd areas. So we have bizarre gags revolving around a bakery that makes subpar celebrity look-a-like cakes or Carl's Parisian date appearing suddenly. This stuff is kooky and weird in a way that at least made me laugh.

Another thing that can be said in “Yes Man's” favor is the sheer intensity with which Jim Carrey goes for it. Carrey built his career on his rubber-faced antics and pratfalls. By the time “Yes Man” came out, it had been a while since we had really seen Carrey embrace his roots as a physical comedian. Within the first ten minutes of the film, Carrey does a wild slip onto a barroom floor. At one point, he flips backwards down a flight of stairs, landing in a heap at on a concrete foundation. After a Redbull overdoes, he slumps to the floor dramatically. Through many of the scenes, Carrey mugs furiously, flashing that big unhinged smile. While its not exactly disciplined, there is a certain novelty in seeing a classically over-the-top Jim Carrey performance like this one again.

After directing a broad studio comedy like “The Break-Up,” it makes sense that Peyton Reed would move onto another broad studio comedy. Yet “Yes Man” clearly has a little more of the director's pet interest than his previous movie. There's a minor subplot involving a rock band, Allison playing in a wacky band, continuing to show Reed's interest in music. This element is also evident in a sequence where Carrey learns to play guitar and then ends up saving the life of a potential suicide jumper. That scene is also fairly energetic in its direction, the camera whipping around Carrey as he sings his heart out. You can see that movement in a few other moments, like the cult-like “yes” seminar or a mildly spooky park at night the protagonist finds himself in at one point.

Starring opposite Jim Carrey is Zooey Deschanel, well after her reinvention as a raven-haired, banged hipster sex symbol. As Allison, Deschandel is cast exactly to type. See, Allison is an aggressively quirky character. She's introduced driving around on a blue scooter, wearing a helmet with cartoon eyeball stickers on it. Her band sings comedic and partially improvised songs, while dressed as crustacean. During the performance, Zooey performs a Hendrix-esque version of the Star Spangled Banner on keytar. She runs a combination yoga/photography class and loves to do anything wacky and unexpected. In other words, Zooey is playing another almost textbook example of a manic pixie dream girl, as the role is defined entirely by its quirkiness and exist largely to get a stuffy nerd out of his shell.

However, it must be said, Zooey is charming in the part. There's a reason Deschanel is the defining MPDG of our time. She makes doing this absolutely ridiculous stuff look charming and funny. (Instead of obnoxious, which is what it would be in real life.) And the film does, admittedly, make an attempt – a very facile attempt – to give Allison some agency. During their exhausting, quirk-fest vacation, she asks Carl if they should move in together. He says yes but then she learns that he agreed to say yes to everything, driving a wedge between them. You will recognize this as that obnoxious thing rom-coms do, where they have to engineer drama at the end of the second act to keep the story going. The exact mechanics to this story turn are especially ridiculous, involving Carl being mistaken for a terrorists, a plot point that goes no further than this one scene. I almost feel like that's an extension of “Yes Man's” overall absurd tone but it's definitely an issue with the film.

As is typical of mid-tier studio comedies like these, “Yes Man” has a supporting cast loaded with familiar faces. Before becoming a big star in his own right, Bradley Cooper appears here as Carl's friend, Peter. I'm not sure why a misanthrope like Carl is friends with an upward, successful guy like Peter and Cooper also seems mildly baffled as to why he's in this movie. (Though not as baffled as Sasha Alexander, who pops in for a few scenes as Peter's fiance.) Terence Stamp's extremely serious British quality is perfectly utilized as the creator of the “Yes” philosophy, who ends up acting as a straight man to Carry's wackier antics. Probably the funniest supporting role is Rhys Darby as Carrey's excessively wacky boss, who mostly emerges as a huge nerd desperate to have friends. Darby's ability to weave absurdist gold out of any line of dialogue is well utilized.

Another sign that “Yes Man” is a medium budget studio product is, weirdly enough, the amount of inter-studio product placement in the film. The film's first scene is in a Blockbuster Video – R.I.P. – which presents opportunities for other recent releases from Warner Brothers to show up. Carl rents “300,” another W.B. release, and later attends a costume party devoted to the movie. This is after an earlier sequence where Carl's boss has a costume party dedicated to “Harry Potter,” a film series that is also, you might noticed, produced by Heyday Films. Brand names for motorcycles, sports teams, and cameras are all repeatedly mentioned throughout the film. Even though all this stuff exist in real life, you can't help but notice a fictional movie drawing so much attention to it. It actually ends up breaking the immersion of the film, especially with one as overall goofy as “Yes Man.”

Still, for its many myriad of flaws and annoying quirks, “Yes Man” was a lot more entertaining than I was expecting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it ends up feeling a lot like one of Carrey's nineties movies. That is to say, aggressively wacky and hyper but with a decent supporting cast and enough inspired silliness to make its runtime glide by without the audience noticing too much. If “Yes Man” had fully committed to its ridiculous atmosphere, it might've been something special. Instead, it backslides repeatedly into sentimentality and mediocrity. The film is undistinguished, leaving little room for Peyton Reed's trademarks as a director, though its 223 million box office gross probably didn't hurt his career. But I didn't dislike the movie. I even kind of liked it. And, if nothing else, it is a lot less obnoxious than “The Break-Up.” [Grade: C+]