Yes Man

Does one word have the power to change your life? If you go by the wisdom self-help gurus like to give off, particularly when they are on a spot-lit stage, surrounded by adoring fans, it is not only just possible, it is entirely probable.

Sad sack Carl Allen Jim Carrey gets dragged to one such convention, where a white-haloed gent Terence Stamp bullies him into saying 8220;Yes8221;. No, he won8217;t say no anymore. Yes, he will always say yes, from now on. And that one small decision will cause his misery to vanish, to make way for a new love, and a new self.

The resolve to say the word leads him, in a circuitous sort of way, to the scooter-driving, photography-teaching, rock-band playing Allison Zooey. It also makes him a champion hander out of loans-everyone who fetches up with a request at his desk oh yeah, forgot to mention that when Carl is not hanging out with his friends and drinking beer and wallowing, he8217;s a banker, is greeted with a resounding 8220;Yes8221;.

He also becomes a dear friend to his nerdy boss Rhys Darby, who has a thing for theme parties where everyone8217;s dressed as Harry Potter oh, also forgot to mention that Yes Man, like the Harry Potter movies, is a Warner Bros production, and if big-ticket studios can8217;t do self advertisement, who can?

Standard rom com riffs in the hands of someone as comically agile as Carrey become a little special. And here again he connects with you, off and on, to make you laugh. Only thing is, Carrey8217;s face-pulling, eye rolling antics have been served up once too often to for us to be enamoured anew, so Yes Man becomes a bumpy ride headed by the good-hearted, goofy Carrey we8217;ve seen him before, who breaks out of the standard plot devices to do a couple of unexpected things: he spouts high-speed Korean at a bored shop-girl, he strums a guitar, very well, while saving a would-be suicide, and he8230; hmm, actually, not much else.

He8217;s in good company though. Zooey Deschanel is ditzy and funny in a very likeable way, and Rhys Darby, in his first screen role, is the most vivid character of them all and that includes a snow-haired granny who offers her services to, err, to bring 8220;release8221; to the unhappy Carl.

So, no? Or yes? Well, maybe.

shubhra.guptagmail.com