Yes is the new no

For someone who was never a Jim Carrey fan (except for his performance in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) I was pleasantly surprised to find that I thoroughly enjoyed his new movie Yes Man. Carrey plays Carl, a disgruntled, pessimistic bank loan officer who hates his job and everyone he meets. After a devastating divorce, Carl can’t seem to get the motivation he needs to seek out new opportunities. He’s antisocial, forgetful and uncommitted, and he sees no problem with any of it. After he misses his best friend’s [played by Bradley Cooper]  engagement party, he gets a wake-up call about the need to modify his lifestyle. He runs into a past acquaintance who tells them about this program where one has to say ‘Yes’ to everything in order to get the ball rolling in the right direction to a more positive lifestyle. Carl notices that after he says yes to things, his life starts turning around. He gets a promotion, gets along better with the people in his life and meets an interesting new girl [played by Zooey Deschanel]. Carl finds that when he tries to say ‘no’ to things, something bad usually happens, so he just says yes to everything even if he doesn’t want to.

The film is fun, hilarious, and pretty relatable. Carrey’s Carl could be someone you know or know of, a complete misanthrope and socially inept guy who gets totally fooled by the power of Yes that he doesn’t know how to stop and weigh the options for himself. Bradley Cooper was particularly distracting in the movie, as he is just really nice to look at. I think it’s about damn time this guy got his own leading role because he’s been a wing man for the longest time. We all know he can act [see Alias] and we all know he’s got the bod and the nice mug, so what the hey? I’m just tired of seeing him playing the same roles over and over again of the really hot guy friend who’s self-assured and successful [see Failure to Launch and Wedding Crashers], although I do give him credit for his awesome guest appearance in Nip/Tuck.

Another honorable mention would be Zooey Deschanel, who I must admit is my girlie crush. I thought Deschanel would turn out to be a Jena Malone or Scarlett Johansson–with a horrible intent to keep doing the “cool roles” to try to prove something or whatever, but she did this movie and she was so great in it! Now Deschanel isn’t like the other two girls I mentioned because she knows what kinds of roles she wants to play, but she also wants to like these roles. So when she accepts a role for Almost Famous, she does it because she’s probably a Cameron Crowe fan, and because she likes music. When she accepts a role for the horrible movie that is The Happening, she does it because she probably likes working with M. Night Shyamalan (no surprise there). Her role in Yes Man was maybe her second best, only second to her role as Anita in Almost Famous. Maybe we can make a special mention for Trillian in A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, she was pretty cool in that one too. Deschanel plays Allison in Yes Man, a spontaneous, scooter-driving jogging-photographer with a band who turns out to be Carl’s love interest in the film. Her character is so cute with a really awesome style. I also absolutely loved how they made her parody indie bands by dressing up like Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and singing this hilarious song about not calling her at 11pm for a booty call.

Overall, the film was definitely a fun watch. I laughed so hard in parts, and my sister thoroughly enjoyed it as well. If you’re still not convinced, there is a mini music sequence involving Carrey, a suicidal guy and Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper”.

My mom and other sister went to see Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler because they didn’t think Yes Man was funny, but I popped into Bedtime Stories to sit with them and could not bring myself to stay in the theater. Bedtime Stories was so awful, I took a nap for fifteen minutes before getting up and feeling so silly sitting and watching Adam Sandler recite these stupid lines and feeling sorry for Russell Brand that I just ended up leaving. The moral of the story? If you’re torn between Yes Man and Bedtime Stories, do yourself a favor and trust Carrey on this one. This movie is a big Yes to everything in it: Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel and definitely a big Yes for Bradley Cooper.