Here's Father Geek with a spy's report of the New York screening of Carrey's long awaited MAN ON THE MOON. There are giant day-glo purple and orange headshots of Jim as Andy glued up all over Austin, they've been up for a month. I guess its like that in all the major movie market areas, NO words, dates, or anything else just Jim/Andy with a stupid look on his face. GREAT!!! FANTASTIC!!! Its got everybody wondering... talking...
I saw a screening of the highly-anticipated Andy Kaufman biopic, "Man on the Moon," last night at 57th and 3rd in Manhattan.
Let me preface this by saying that along with "The Green Mile" and "The Phantom Menace," this film was one that I was anticipating the most. Did it satiate my thirst? On many levels it did, on others, it did not.
An indisputable fact is that Jim Carrey is remarkable. Although limited by the fact that he doesn't really resemble Kaufman, he has his speech, his mannerisms and his spirit down pat.
However, aside from the rich performances and spriteful energy, the film at times seems like a high-budget "E! True Hollywood Story" re-enactment. Inlike other recent screen biographies like "Nixon, "Larry Flynt," or even the much-maligned "Wired," "Man on the Moon" doesn't shed much light into the man behind the mania. The plot structure is extremely episodic, with every dramatic moment in Andy's life seemingly punctuated by George Shapiro (Danny DeVito) telling Andy not to do it. Example: Andy: "I want to wrestle women." George: "Don't do it, Andy!"
Furthermore, the movie manipulates the timeline in order to give Andy's life some dramatic, tragic-yet-uplifting ending; the film builds to Andy's Carnegie Hall show as it's climax, shortly before his death. In reality, however, the Carnegie Hall show was in 1979, not 1984. Other anachronisms: In Andy's early stand-up days, he is doing a fractured impression of President Carter WHICH LEADS to his appearance on the first SNL show. However, Carter was elected President in November of 76, and the premiere SNL show was in October of 75. These are little things, certainly, but it just smacks of Hollywood caramelization, and I don't think Andy would've liked to see his life being portrayed as some maudlin movie-of-the-week.
But there were many things I liked about the film. The performances were top-notch, most notably by Carrey and Paul Giamatti (as Bob Zmuda), who is quickly proving that he can play the smarmy villain or the goofy sidekick with equal aplomb. Contrary to an earlier review, I didn't think Courtney Love was bad at all, she just had an underwritten role.
The recreations were also done with amazing care and attention to detail, and they come off magnificently. Whether it's the wrestling matches or "Taxi" or the comedy nightclubs, each set piece has an authenticity and charm only evident in truly profeessional filmmaking.
And I loved the score. It was a variation on the REM song, "Man on the Moon," but it perfectly captured Andy's innocence, imagination and turmoil.
All in all, this was a very good, but not great film. As huge of a Kaufman/Carrey fan that I am, I left the theater satisfied and entertained, but was also wondering if I'd learned anything new. I didn't, but that's not a bad thing at all.
