Yes Man.

"That stink emanating from the vicinity of Yes Man is desperation - specifically, that of Jim Carrey, who with this Peyton Reed-helmed comedy both cops to his dramatic forays' imprudence and attempts to right his career's downhill slide by unimaginatively rehashing Liar Liar," writes Nick Schager in Slant.

"'And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself' isn't just a line from A Visit from St Nicholas - it's how I felt about Jim Carrey's performance in the new comedy Yes Man." Alonso Duralde at MSNBC: "Having been annoyed by his antics in many of his recent outings - take Fun with Dick and Jane, please - the world-class mugger dials it down and delights in this breezy (if somewhat formulaic) flick."

Updated through 12/25.

"This is the fourth film directed by Raleigh's own Reed, who - since his debut teen charmer Bring It On - has been making films about manipulative, immature adults," notes Nathan Gelgud in the Independent Weekly. "Down With Love got most of its energy from the unbankable conceit of tossing off a Doris Day-Rock Hudson trifle. Reed's last movie, The Break-Up, concerning the disintegration of a relationship between two unlikable bores, derived a weird kind of zeal from the fact that Reed's serious direction was out of proportion with the film's ineffective content. This led a friend to accuse The Break-Up of "thinking it was (Woody Allen's) Husbands and Wives.' Unfortunately, Yes Man's cinematic approach is not at risk of being mentioned in the same breath as that of Husbands and Wives. It's doubtful anyone would even mention it in the same breath as that of When Harry Met Sally."

Armond White in the New York Press: "Right now, Carrey's career is more troubled than Mickey Rourke's - an avoidable point in the gag about custom-made celebrity look-a-like cakes. Carrey looks at the Mickey Rourke cake and in Yes Man's best line worries, 'I hope it doesn't taste like Mickey Rourke."

"Just say no," advises Duncan Shepherd in the San Diego Reader.

Updates, 12/20: "Physical comedians age in dog years, and Jim Carrey is panting heavily," writes Josh Levin in Slate. "If you find Carrey's latter-day mien too depressing to bear, perhaps it's best to think of Yes Man as a Zooey Deschanel vehicle. Despite being forced to inhabit a character infused with Garden State levels of quirkiness... Deschanel keeps things light and frothy as Carrey flails away."

"The role of Mr Carrey's romantic counterpart is never an easy one, given his manic energy and the childish narcissism that is the basis of his shtick," notes AO Scott in the New York Times. "Only Kate Winslet, engaging with a more subdued incarnation of Mr Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, has been able to distract him from himself."

"Watching Yes Man was, for me, a completely joyless experience," writes Stephanie Zacharek in Salon. "I just can't take pleasure in seeing Carrey fall, figuratively or literally. His particular brand of mugging and physical shtick drove some people crazy right from the start, but I used to delight in his pinpoint timing, in the effortless ballet of his rubbery limbs. Carrey is astonishing in Dumb & Dumber, a poo-humor masterstroke. At the time, there was no one like him, and even now, there's still no one like him - but his distinctiveness no longer matters. With Yes Man, Carrey has bled the well dry, doing everything he knows how to do, over and over again, just to prove that he still knows how to do it. It's exhilarating to see brilliance in a comic; but by the time you start smelling it, the game is over."

"Everything's so apathetic that the movie feels like a shrug, and even Flight of the Conchords' Rhys Darby, phoning in a sad Ricky Gervais impersonation, can't get a laugh out of this dreck," writes Paul Constant in the Stranger.

"Carrey can turn in strong performances, but sincerity and humility just look like more poses pulled from his bag of funny faces," observes Keith Phipps at the AV Club.

"We couldn't summarize Yes Man better than Carrey did on the Tonight Show on Tuesday, when he purported to fall asleep and offered this précis between snores," notes Richard Corliss in Time: "'Carl Allen is a guy who doesn't engage in life. Then he decides to say yes to everything, no matter how silly or deranged it is. Critics are calling it a panacea for our dark times we're living in.' In a little swipe at the competition, Carrey said of Yes Man, 'It's the only movie this weekend where nobody dies in the end.'"

"Jim Carrey works the premise for all it's worth, but it doesn't allow him to bust loose and fly," writes Roger Ebert. "When a lawyer must tell the truth and wants desperately not to (even pounding himself over the head with a toilet seat to stop himself), it's funny. When a loan officer must say 'yes' and wants to, where is the tension?"

Yes Man is actually based on a book - by Danny Wallace, who tells the story of the adaptation from his POV in the Guardian.

Update, 12/25: Online listening tip. Ambrose Heron talks with Danny Wallace.

Posted by dwhudson at December 18, 2008 12:41 PM