Potential spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned.
JIM CARREY
Films: The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
As I have been writing my entries, I’ve noticed that I’ve used the phrase “I’m generally not a fan of…” quite a bit. This isn’t the case with every entry, but certainly a few of them. I think a lot of this has to do with my taste in comedy. I don’t prefer the goofy, slapstick, and bombastic performances that many people admire (Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun may just be my exception). It’s safe to say that throughout most of his career, Carrey personified this style of comedy. However, amidst his juvenile humor-filled filmography, three titles stand out. I hypothesize that Jim Carrey has given three remarkable performances that show his range as an actor. They are (in chronological order) The Truman Show, Man on the Moon, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
To track the development of Carrey as an actor, we first need to go back to 1998. Before 1998, Carrey had been cast primarily as an idiot (Dumb and Dumber), an over-the-top eccentric (Ace Ventura and The Mask), or just a plain freak (The Cable Guy). I should note that I was born in 1998, so everything I’m speculating on or when I talk about awards recognition, I’m looking back retroactively with the knowledge I have now. That being said, I have a hunch that when audiences walked into theaters to see The Truman Show, they were expecting another goofy Jim Carrey comedy. What they didn’t expect to see was a character study with a mature, thoughtful performance, disguised as a scathing satire on the dangers of fame and the public obsession with it. For those who somehow haven’t seen it (it’s a 25-year-old movie, folks), the film centers around Truman Burbank, a thirty-year-old insurance salesman who is unknowingly the subject of a reality TV show. As the facade starts to crack, Truman will do anything to discover the truth, while the show’s creator will do anything to keep him on camera.
It’s hard to talk about the film and only talk about Carrey’s performance. Andrew Niccol’s ingenious script and Peter Weir’s superb direction have to be addressed, so I will keep it quick. Niccol’s script, at its heart, is a character study. It’s a character study of this man who feels isolated, alone, and longing for more, living in a world where he is frequently grounded and discouraged from exploring his thoughts. The script also pokes fun at the idea of celebrity and how its effects can become dangerous, either to society or an individual. I read that Niccol’s script was originally written as more of a thriller before being re-written into the film we know today, and I can see that. When we first meet Truman, we get the vibe that he feels that there is something off. This fact is only exacerbated when he witnesses the set light come crashing down. As he notices other signs, like tuning into the radio frequency the cast uses around him to detect his every move or the repetitious acting of the people around him, he becomes more secretive and discrete in his life. This thriller effect is given credence by Weir’s masterful direction. To give the audience the feeling that they are watching a reality show, the director places “hidden” cameras in some truly unique places, such as mirrors, vending machines, or car dashboards. However, the most innovative placement might just be a pencil sharpener in Truman’s office. The best word I could use to describe the aesthetic of the film would be “voyeuristic.” So, just to reiterate, I’ve called this film a character study, a satire, and a thriller. I could even add to that list, prison break because Truman’s goal by the end of the film is to break out of his artificial world. Each would be appropriate too, but for my money, it’s ultimately a character study.
Okay, back to Carrey. Because I have two other performances to talk about, I’ll keep it brief. Simply put, Carrey plays Truman with a lot of heart. He’s a broken man who seemingly has everything, but he knows something is missing from his life. In Carrey’s capable hands, you see Truman’s arc played out with perfection. As the film starts, Truman is a sweet, but naive “ordinary” man. As the film progresses, he goes from naive, to confused, to angry, to victorious. Carrey embodies each of these emotions, and as a result, it leaves the audience with a triumphant feeling as Truman finally escapes his artificial world. Overall, it’s a simple, yet powerful performance, and arguably one of his most iconic.
One year after The Truman Show, Carrey was back in the award circuit with Man on the Moon, an unorthodox biopic about an unorthodox figure, Andy Kaufman. The film is a weird amalgam of different moving parts. For starters, the film was produced by Kaufman’s Taxi co-star Danny DeVito (who also stars as Kaufman’s manager, George Shapiro) and written by Ed Wood scribes Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. Most baffling to me, however, is that the director chosen to bring Kaufman’s story to life was two-time Academy Award winner Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus). In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t all that baffling of a move, considering he directed Woody Harrelson to an Oscar nomination three years prior in The People vs. Larry Flynt. Just an interesting, yet effective choice to bring in a director of prestige drama to tell Kaufman’s story, in my opinion.
Another interesting aspect of the film is that many creative liberties were taken with the story and timeline. While this is nothing new, the film is unapologetic in this manner, going so far as having Andy address the audience directly to explain this in the opening minutes. Some liberties are forgivable. For instance, the “milk and cookies” scene at Carnegie Hall is depicted as his last concert performance, when in reality, the event took place five years earlier. Some are more egregious. The many inaccuracies involving Kaufman’s appearances on SNL are a perfect example. I’m not sure if counts as a creative liberty, but I do find it funny how the film does not attempt to make real-life celebrities look era-appropriate. It’s at once jarring and humorous, seeing the 1999 versions of Jerry Lawlor and David Letterman (among others), portray the 1982 versions of themselves with no makeup effects. But, in a way, it is fitting that a film about a man who was notorious for hoaxes and deceptions in the name of comedy would take so many liberties.
The consensus was that the film itself was fine, but Carrey’s performance was universally praised, and I can see why. Carrey infamously went full method actor, staying in character as Andy throughout filming. This drew the ire of many co-stars, who found him to be unprofessional and extremely abrasive, especially when portraying Kaufman’s Tony Clifton persona. The film is so infamous, that it inspired a 2017 Netflix documentary about the making of the film and the extremes of Carrey’s method acting. A departure from Truman, Carrey looks like he is having a blast reenacting Kaufman’s wacky antics. But, that’s not to say he doesn’t do any “serious” acting. When Andy is diagnosed with cancer towards the end of the film, Carrey can find the perfect balance between pathos and humor. As Andy nears death, despite the somberness of it all, he manages never to lose that spark. You could call it humor, madness, or mania, whatever it is, he never loses it. Carrey plays these scenes with remarkable restraint and ease. So much so, that when he eventually passes away, it’s like an emotional gut punch. I can, however, see why so many people thought for the longest time that he faked his death. The ending of the film certainly leaves you wondering if his passing was a hoax. This ambiguity certainly is rooted in the spirit of who Andy Kaufman was. Hoax or not, Carrey does Andy Kaufman justice with his all-around manic, understated, and heartfelt performance.
It would take five years before Carrey would give us another successful dramatic turn, this time in Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Between Moon and Sunshine, Carrey went back to his roots of starring in serviceable comedies, appearing in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Me, Myself, and Irene, and Bruce Almighty. It was Sunshine, that was a return to form for Carrey. He plays Joel Barish, a depressed, middle-aged man, still recovering from the breakup between him and his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet). He becomes devastated when he learns that Clementine underwent a procedure to remove him from her memories. Feeling that he won’t be able to move on until he does the same, he elects to undergo the procedure too. However, as the memories begin to be erased, he changes his mind and decides to keep the memories. This sets off a race against time for his unconscious self to somehow signal to the technicians working on his brain, to stop the procedure.
Like Truman, Carrey is restrained as the grieving Barish. Whereas many of Carrey’s characters are loud and external, Joel is quiet and largely internal. In such a unique, abstract, and frankly bizarre film, Carrey’s understated performance was such a compliment to the world around him. In a way, I think Joel is the most realistic character Carrey has ever played. In fact, Joel is the character I most associate with the “true” Carrey. Though I would never claim to know the “true” Jim Carrey, he has been very vocal about his struggle with depression. When he plays these loud, over-the-top characters, that’s Carrey distracting his mind. As someone who struggles with depression myself, I can identify with Carrey’s many statements on the matter and his performance as this broken man is all too relatable.
Now, let’s talk about the number of Academy Awards Jim Carrey has been nominated for. The number may surprise you. It’s a whopping ZERO. That’s right, Jim Carrey has never been nominated for an Oscar. Looking back to the 1999 ceremony, where Carrey should have placed, the nominees were Roberto Benigni (winner, Life is Beautiful), Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan), Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters), Nick Nolte (Affliction), and Edward Norton (American History X). Not having seen Life Is Beautiful, Affliction, or Gods and Monsters, I can’t speak to the deservedness of those nominees. I agree with the nominations for Hanks and Norton. I will say that I have a running list of well-made movies so upsetting I never want to watch them again, and American History X is on that list, despite Norton’s heartbreaking performance. Even more surprising is the fact that Carrey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, often a precursor to the Oscars, without even securing a nomination.
At the next year’s Oscars, Carrey again failed to secure a nomination against Kevin Spacey (winner, American Beauty), Russell Crowe (The Insider), Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story), Sean Penn (Sweet and Lowdown), and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane). I haven’t seen Sweet and Lowdown or The Straight Story, but I would say the other three performances undoubtedly deserved nominations. Interestingly enough, Carrey earned a nomination for Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, often another precursor to the Oscars. It remains the only nomination of his career.
Jumping to the 2005 ceremony, Carrey was snubbed yet again. As we get into more recent ceremony years, I have more of an opinion on the nominated titles. Those nominated for Best Actor were Jamie Foxx (winner, Ray), Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), Johnny Depp (Finding Neverland), Leonardo DiCaprio (The Aviator), and Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby). I have already told myself that if I could swap out one nominee for someone I believe was snubbed, I would swap Clint Eastwood for Paul Giamatti in Sideways. I just love his performance and I thought his snub was an injustice. Anyway, this is about Carrey, not Paul Giamatti. Million Dollar Baby is a remarkable movie, well deserving of its Best Picture and Best Director win. However, when I think of Million Dollar Baby, I think of Swank’s stellar performance, not Eastwood’s grumpy old man. If I had to swap out another nominee, I would swap out Depp for Carrey. Granted, I’ve never seen Finding Neverland, so maybe it is worth the nomination, I do not know. I do, however, know that the other three nominees were more than worthy. In this case, I think his snub has everything to do with the fact that it was a crowded field. To make Carrey’s snub worse, not only was Carrey nominated for a BAFTA but his scene partner, Kate Winslet was nominated for the Oscar.
In the 20 years since Sunshine, Carrey’s screen presence has diminished. He hasn’t reached the acting heights he once did, but I am always holding out hope for a Carrey renaissance.
Check this out: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (10/11) Movie CLIP – Joel’s Tape (2004) HD