Sharon Movie: The Majestic (2001)

The Majestic (2001)

Director: Frank Darabont
Writer: Michael Sloane
Genre: Drama/Romance

Story

Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is an up and coming screenwriter in Hollywood living in the time after WWII that the government was looking for communists (witch hunt) everywhere. Peter is suspected to be a communist because of some ties to communist groups and the studio cancels all of his movies and his girlfriend dumps him. In his grief he drinks too much and then drives and ends up wrecking his car off a bridge. When he awakes from his wreck he doesn’t remember who he is, but the town he finds himself in believes he is Luke Trimble, a war hero who they thought had died in the war. As Peter tries to learn who he really is and the town welcomes him in everyway possible, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) gets Peter (who he thinks is his son Luke) to help him rebuild the Majestic (a movie theater) and bring the town back together.


Everything Else

The directing of The Majestic is slow and dull at times, but does the job and even brings a decent amount of emotion into play. There were plenty of cheesy lines and scenes to make this one seem overly unbelievable, but the message and emotion still came across. Possibly the most interesting part about this movie was Jim Carrey’s ability to act in it rather than just act crazy. Carrey is funny and has proven that time and time again, but it was not until this performance that he proved he had a true talent for acting. There is not any Jim Carrey humor in The Majestic and that is a good thing.


The story is an interesting one, but upon second viewing it becomes less compelling and you become more focused on how cheesy everything about the movie is. Also, the movie is very slow to start and doesn’t really get going until about 20 minutes from the end. This film suffers from horrible pacing and over dramatization. Aside from those problems however, the acting and story were quite good. I am a little harsh here, but these are things that one needs to know going into it so that they can enjoy the story and acting even more. Expect the worst and hope for the best is always the best way to go into a movie.


The Real Deal

I liked The Majestic a whole lot more the first time around, but it was still good the second time. It had been quite some time since I had seen it so it should have been a good movie to come back to. I think I would have been better off leaving it where it was in my memory though. The whole idea of the movie is interesting and it is always good to see Jim Carrey actually act. This movie and the Truman Show were the first two movies that made me believe in Carrey’s talent. The Majestic is good for watching with a varied audience. There is not much offensive content and there really is nothing but a little language to be considered. The Majestic is a good lighthearted movie with good moral lessons and values, but it is really a movie you should only watch once.


The Short Version

Raw Score: 764,239
Sharon Movie? Yes

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