The Majestic

In his latest effort at playing a less-than-zany character, Jim Carrey is receiving less-than-complimentary reviews. The Majestic isn't, writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times. Rather it's The Film That Wasn't There, a derivative, self-satisfied fable that couldn't be more treacly and simple-minded if it tried. Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail calls it a painful schmaltz-a-thon, while Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News says that it oozes sentimental goo ... and the gunk gets so think so fast, it's a wonder the projector doesn't freeze before the molasses-strapped finale. To David Germain of the Association Press, The Majestic is a bore, plodding its way through dreary romance and blithering notions of redemption and heroic last stands. Philip Wuntch in the Dallas Morning News suggests that it could have succeeded if the director, Frank Darabont, had been less heavy-handed: There's nothing wrong with warm 'n' fuzzy, he observes, until the warmth and fuzziness grow suffocating. Of the major critics, only Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, gives the film a thumbs-up. It makes us feel about as good as any movie made this year, Ebert observes, adding I imagine every single review of The Majestic will compare it to the works of Frank Capra, and that's as it should be. Frank Darabont has deliberately tried to make the kind of movie Capra made, about decent small-town folks standing up for traditional American values. Ebert is correct about the Capra comparisons.