Running time: 152 minutes
Starring: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, Allen Garfield, David Ogden Stiers, James Whitmore
Rating 2 out of 10
Everyone likes to feel good. But no one likes to be manipulated. In The Majestic's unabashed endeavour to invoke the former, it only succeeds in achieving the latter. So thickly is the treacle spread that all involved struggle to wade through it, reducing proceedings to a glacial pace and upsetting one's stomach in the process. In an age when cynicism rules and sentiment is scorned, it's brave to attempt to turn the clock back, but when comparing The Majestic to those films from a simpler era which it has so blatantly tried to emulate, you realise that what's timeless is the quality not the period.
Director Frank Darabont has shown with his previous films The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile that he has both patience and a warm heart when it comes to telling a story. But while those films were based on the assured narrative of Stephen King, The Majestic is written by Darabont's close friend Michael Sloane, leading to the inevitable speculation that perhaps he allowed that fuzzy heart to cloud his reasoning when he agreed to direct such vacuous piffle. It might be the explanation, but it's not an excuse and certainly doesn't explain how Carrey and the others got involved.
Set in 1951, Carrey plays Pete Appleton, a Hollywood screenwriter who's enjoying an early flush of success with the release of his first film, the B-movie, 'Sand Pirates Of The Sahara', when he discovers his name has been blacklisted and he has become the target of the House on Un-American Activities Committee. His defence that he unknowingly joined the communist affiliated Bread Instead of Bullets Club for the sole purpose of impressing a girl holds little sway and so, having perched on the edge of triumph, he is thrust into the pit of despair. He seeks solace in a glass before driving home. He never makes it, crashing into a river before washing up on the beach of the small town of Lawson suffering from amnesia.
Bearing an uncanny resemblance to one of the town's heroic sons, Luke Trimble, who'd gone missing in action nine years earlier, Appleton finds himself the centre of attention in Lawson and mistaken for the long lost son of Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) who owns a run down cinema, The Majestic. For Carrey, who is still struggling to be taken seriously, this performance will do little to serve his cause as he wanders around with a glazed expression in his quest to find his true character. During Appleton's time in the sleepy idyll of Lawson, he rediscovers all the wholesome values that his Hollywood life had eroded as well as love in the form of Luke's one time fiancée Adele (the film's best performance by Laurie Holden).
To bookend the film's technicolour rendering of fantasy life in Lawson with one of the darkest episodes in Hollywood's history makes for an awkward contrast. Presumably done in order to imbue The Majestic with some substance, its impact is lost as the heavy handed approach adopted throughout only mocks events and highlights the film's utter detachment from reality.
Director Frank Darabont has shown with his previous films The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile that he has both patience and a warm heart when it comes to telling a story. But while those films were based on the assured narrative of Stephen King, The Majestic is written by Darabont's close friend Michael Sloane, leading to the inevitable speculation that perhaps he allowed that fuzzy heart to cloud his reasoning when he agreed to direct such vacuous piffle. It might be the explanation, but it's not an excuse and certainly doesn't explain how Carrey and the others got involved.
Set in 1951, Carrey plays Pete Appleton, a Hollywood screenwriter who's enjoying an early flush of success with the release of his first film, the B-movie, 'Sand Pirates Of The Sahara', when he discovers his name has been blacklisted and he has become the target of the House on Un-American Activities Committee. His defence that he unknowingly joined the communist affiliated Bread Instead of Bullets Club for the sole purpose of impressing a girl holds little sway and so, having perched on the edge of triumph, he is thrust into the pit of despair. He seeks solace in a glass before driving home. He never makes it, crashing into a river before washing up on the beach of the small town of Lawson suffering from amnesia.
Bearing an uncanny resemblance to one of the town's heroic sons, Luke Trimble, who'd gone missing in action nine years earlier, Appleton finds himself the centre of attention in Lawson and mistaken for the long lost son of Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) who owns a run down cinema, The Majestic. For Carrey, who is still struggling to be taken seriously, this performance will do little to serve his cause as he wanders around with a glazed expression in his quest to find his true character. During Appleton's time in the sleepy idyll of Lawson, he rediscovers all the wholesome values that his Hollywood life had eroded as well as love in the form of Luke's one time fiancée Adele (the film's best performance by Laurie Holden).
To bookend the film's technicolour rendering of fantasy life in Lawson with one of the darkest episodes in Hollywood's history makes for an awkward contrast. Presumably done in order to imbue The Majestic with some substance, its impact is lost as the heavy handed approach adopted throughout only mocks events and highlights the film's utter detachment from reality.
