Posted: 12/27/2001

The Majestic

(2001)

by Hank Yuloff

It is the holiday season, and it is time for one of those “feel good about humanity” movies to come out.

Last year, it was The Family Man.

For 2001, it is The Majestic.

The Majestic is the type of movie you used to see in black and white. I have heard it compared to the Frank Capra films of It’s A Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. While it is not as powerful as those two classics, it is a great movie which relies on the old Hollywood formula of boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy spends the rest of the movie getting girl back. Set in 1951, it is the story of an up and coming screenwriter who is black listed by Hollywood because the House un-American Activities Committee of the Congress was investigating the infiltration of the movie industry by communists and thought he was part of the plot.

The night he finds out he has no job, Peter Appleton decides to take a ride up the coast of California to clear his mind. A freak, one-car accident causes him to end up on the beach only to awaken with that favorite conflict of all movie storytellers: amnesia. He is found by Stan Keller (James Whitmore) and taken back to the town only to be identified as Luke Trimble, one of the townsmen lost in World War II. In a fit of mass hysteria reminding us of The Emperor Wore No Clothes, Appleton/Trimble is taken to the town’s bosom as a returning hero.

The closest I had ever seen Jim Carrey in a dramatic role was in The Truman Show. You know, the guy has the chops to pull off the serious stuff as well as the comedic. I think The Majestic gave Carrey the opportunity to spread his acting wings that Robin Williams got in Dead Poets Society and finally won him an Oscar for Good Will Hunting. It was nice to see his face undisturbed by pounds of prosthetic makeup.

Director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) brought the feeling of a small 200-year-old east-coast town to the California coast. It is the type of place that everyone knew each other and pulled together. There were some small continuity gaps but Darabont’s style of making us feel for soul of the lead character served him (and us) well in The Majestic. I’ll throw out the term “Norman Rockwell painting” here, but only so you get the feel of the town.

Some acting kudos also go to the entire cast, led by Martin Landau as Luke’s dad Harry Trimble, Laurie Holden (Echo—TV movie) as Luke’s girlfriend (though how this girl didn’t find another guy in nine years amazes me), and David Ogden Stiers (Curse of the Jade Scorpion) as her father. There are also two scenes where you will see Carrey in close-up as the writer of a screenplay being gone over by a group of producers during story meetings. Carl and Rob Reiner, Sidney Sheldon and Garry Marshall lend their voices in cameo to what is the funniest part of the movie.

The Majestic has that magical, wonderful feeling you like to get in a movie theater. Bring your main squeeze. Bring the kids. This is a family movie with a happy ending that does not rely on explosions or secret agents to win the day, just your imagination and willingness to allow good things to happen if you stand up for what you believe.

Hank Yuloff is a movie fan that loves to spend time in the dark theater watching movies. He just wishes the asshole who let his phone ring three times during The Majestic screening would drop into a hole and vanish.

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