Somehow, this Frank Darabont movie has gotten by me for over twenty-some years. I greatly enjoy his work, and I had a friend in my video store days who adored this movie. So I guess I figured it was time to remedy that. As I settled in, I realized why I hadn’t seen this one before.
Jim Carrey.
Don’t get me wrong, my 20s were full of Carrey, from MadTV to Dumb & Dumber. I am also aware that he can play dramatic roles and has done so, but I just couldn’t quite get a bead on his performance in this one.
It was like he was restraining himself a bit, as if he was waiting to break out into maniacal laughter and impressions. Not the whole time. Sometimes he’s rather poignant, but I just couldn’t get into his turn as Peter Appleton/Luke Trimble.
It’s a beautiful film, gorgeously shot, and the cast is filled with lots of familiar faces. It has a gorgeous score by Mark Isham, and Darabont works to deliver a thoughtful and enjoyable pontification on identity, small-town America, movies, and how our actions define who we are.
Appleton has just found himself blacklisted in 1951 Hollywood. He can’t be a communist. He just heard someone talk when he was in college in an effort to impress a girl. But those actions will haunt him.
So he gets drunk and heads up along the north coast of California before succumbing to a terrible crash that leaves him with no memory and a new chance at life in a small town, where Harry Trimble (Martin Landau) believes Appleton is his son, Luke, finally returned from the war.
There’s an entirely perfect life waiting for him here. Friends, a girl, Adele (Laurie Holden), he and Harry work to reopen the family business, the local theatre, The Majestic. There’s joy and happiness to be found here; he seems to be settling in, but there’s something niggling at the back of his mind, and even some of the locals begin to wonder if he’s not who they think he is.
Or is he that person in his heart?
He’s going to have trouble with the government when they come looking for him. Dispatched by Clyde (Bob Balaban), two agents played by Daniel von Bargen and Shawn Doyle.
There’s a fantastic appearance by Bruce Campbell, and a very familiar-looking statue. In fact, the entire cast is familiar-looking: Hal Holbrook, Ron Rifkin, Jeffrey DeMunn, Catherine Dent, David Ogden Stiers, and James Whitmore.
It’s a beautiful film, and honestly, had it just been made a few years earlier, this could have been another pairing of Darabont and Tom Hanks, who I think would have been better suited to the role. It was offered to him, and he definitely would have been able to lean into the Capra-esque style of the film, a small town mourning the loss of the sons they sent to war.
It was really good, beautifully shot, and the attention to detail is fantastic, but it could have been great.
