Yes Man

Does one word have the power to change your life? If you go by the wisdom self-help gurus like to give off, particularly when they are on a spot-lit stage, surrounded by adoring fans, it is not only just possible, it is entirely probable.

Sad sack Carl Allen (Jim Carrey) gets dragged to one such convention, where a white-haloed gent (Terence Stamp) bullies him into saying “Yes”. No, he won’t say no anymore. Yes, he will always say yes, from now on. And that one small decision will cause his misery to vanish, to make way for a new love, and a new self.

The resolve to say the word leads him, in a circuitous sort of way, to the scooter-driving, photography-teaching, rock-band playing Allison (Zooey). It also makes him a champion hander out of loans-everyone who fetches up with a request at his desk (oh yeah, forgot to mention that when Carl is not hanging out with his friends and drinking beer and wallowing, he’s a banker), is greeted with a resounding “Yes”.

He also becomes a dear friend to his nerdy boss (Rhys Darby), who has a thing for theme parties where everyone’s dressed as Harry Potter (oh, also forgot to mention that Yes Man, like the Harry Potter movies, is a Warner Bros production, and if big-ticket studios can’t do self advertisement, who can?)

Standard rom com riffs in the hands of someone as comically agile as Carrey become a little special. And here again he connects with you, off and on, to make you laugh. Only thing is, Carrey’s face-pulling, eye rolling antics have been served up once too often to for us to be enamoured anew, so Yes Man becomes a bumpy ride headed by the good-hearted, goofy Carrey (we’ve seen him before), who breaks out of the standard plot devices to do a couple of unexpected things: he spouts high-speed Korean at a bored shop-girl, he strums a guitar, very well, while saving a would-be suicide, and he… hmm, actually, not much else.

He’s in good company though. Zooey Deschanel is ditzy and funny in a very likeable way, and Rhys Darby, in his first screen role, is the most vivid character of them all (and that includes a snow-haired granny who offers her services to, err, to bring “release” to the unhappy Carl).

So, no? Or yes? Well, maybe.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com