Raymond Sternadel
It's like watching a slow motion car accident waiting for it to happen because you can see it coming but you just can't look away. And then, you get really sad but then you get really happy because everyone survived. Basically, I very much enjoyed this movie and would definitely recommend it, especially if you are a Jim Carrey fan.
jamariana
Has an old-school, golden-age-of-cinema charm to it. The protagonist is a good man and the movie is entertaining enough, albeit a bit long. There are also a few loose ends that the movie doesn't adequately tackle, but ultimately I find there is more to like than dislike about the film.
classicalsteve
"The Majestic" is a throw-back to fantasy films of a by-gone era, such as those directed by Frank Capra and Henry Koster. Not only is the storyline itself similar to Hollywood fantasies of the late 1940's and 1950's, several scenes ring of old movies. Townspeople often gather in front of the main character and his girl. In some sense, the film is like a film within a film, in which the people of the small town are like the audience and the characters like those on stage. "The Majestic" is an inadvertent realization of "the world is a stage", but unfortunately, as things play out, the central theme is applied like a bull-dozer. Only in a few scenes do we see the character exhibiting blood, sweat and tears, at the beginning and near the end. For much of the middle, he's almost too happy, things working out too well. There's an old adage of storytelling which says only trouble is interesting. Unfortunately, the trouble takes a back seat to the elation.The premise could have been concocted straight out of a Frank Capra screen concept. A b-movie screenwriter in 1950's Hollywood, Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey), is accused of secretly harboring communist sensibilities and therefore could be spying for the USSR. His career in film is essentially at an end, and he's being summoned to Washington to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He then takes a trip with his only friend, a little stuffed monkey, up the California coast where he gets into a horrible accident on a bridge. He's washed up on the beach like a crew member of a ship lost at sea. An old man discovers him and helps him to the nearest town, an unassuming small town on the California coast called Lawson which rings similarly to Bedford Falls of "It's a Wonderful Life". Appleton suffers from amnesia and doesn't who he is. He sees pictures in the town windows of local young men who fell overseas fighting in the Second World War.He happens into a local coffee shop where another elderly gentleman, Harry Trimble (Martin Landau), recognizes him. He's convinced it's his son, Luke Trimble, who went missing-in-action during the war. The local towns folk then reacquaint themselves with who they believe is their long lost soldier, one of the few who has returned. They decide to hold a large celebration in his honor. He even meets Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden) who had been Luke's fiancé. She is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous and yet for nearly a decade she's not hooked up with any other men, which is one of the many problems with the storyline.Since the town believes he's a hero, he goes along, even though some aspects don't seem right. Although he can't remember, there is a sense that Appleton knows that things aren't they way they should be, which is the best aspect of Carrey's performance. Trimble takes him home and shortly thereafter proposes they re-open the local movie theater which has laid dormant since the war. Of course the name of the theater is "The Majestic", and it gives Appleton, now Luke Trimble, a new sense of purpose and direction. At the same time, the FBI has decided that Appleton must be a communist spy since his disappearance from Los Angeles.The central problem with this film is that it lacks balance. The joy and elation of the townspeople enjoying the return of their long-lost hero goes on for about as long as an endless dance sequence from a musical. Almost no one in the town questions that Luke Trimble is a war casualty and has returned in the flesh. I was expecting to see more doubt among some of the townspeople. I also wanted to see the darker sides of both characters, Appleton and Trimble, but both seem too perfect. Maybe a curse word from Appleton which would never have been on the lips of Trimble, or visa-versa. Only one towns-person is not happy to see Luke Trimble but not because he doubts it's really him but because he was a rival before the start of the war. It was also difficult to buy the idea that Adele Stanton was not with another man, and that when she started spending time with him, she thought something was wrong. It would have made more sense if she was with someone else and then flabbergasted concerning Luke's return.The script really needed several more rewrites with added confrontations between Carrey and doubters. Only one character reveals late in the film that he knew Trimble wasn't Trimble. Aside from him, the joy of most of the town upon celebrating the return of Luke was just a bit too saccharine and forced. When they begin to renovate the movie theater, the entire town pitches in to help. I half-expected them to start singing Kumabya. It reminded me of those old Bing Crosby movies where the cast is trying to "solve a problem" and everyone decides the solution is "Hey fellas! Let's put on a show!" Again I expecting a bit more blood regarding his return similar to the story of Martin Guerre, a returned war hero who turns out to be an impostor. Only when the FBI catch up with him is there some meat to the story again, but this occurrence is about 80% through the film. The film was 75% in the bliss department and only 25% in the trouble department with too many additives and preservatives. If trouble is what makes a story interesting, "The Majestic" needed to reverse the numbers. By film's end, Appleton/Trimble had not gone through hell and back to make me feel like he's really been through something which significantly causes him to change. In "It's a Wonderful Life", George Bailey goes through hell to get back to heaven. With Appleton/Trimble, it was more like a short-cut.
Rick Swartzlander
I don't see how anyone could not like this movie. I went to see it in the theater when it first came out and love it more every time I see it.They should make more movies like this instead of the crap they pump out. Its great to see several old school actors in this film that were around during the Hollywood blacklisting.Its a wholesome, family movie yet deals with some very serious matters. I can't believe movie critics were so harsh on this fine film. They should find another career. BTW Jim Carey is excellent in this movie. He should do more serious roles.
