accessAtlanta

Grade: C-

Verdict: Nothing wrong with a feel-good movie, but this one feels false.

Details: Starring Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden and David Ogden Stiers. Directed by Frank Darabont. Rated PG for language and mild thematic elements. Two hours, 38 minutes.

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Review: Not even Frank Capra would have made something as corny as "The Majestic," a counterfeit inspirational movie dripping--or is it oozing--with treacle.

Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey), an up-and-coming screenwriter in 1951 Hollywood, is poised to move from B-movies to the A-list. Instead, he's moved to the blacklist when Joe McCarthy's witchhunting underlings discover that he was in something called the Bread Not Bullets Society in college. That he was there just to impress a girl doesn't matter.

Peter goes on a bender, drives off a bridge, bashes his head and gets amnesia. He's washed ashore near the friendly little town of Lawson. Peter may not know who he is, but everyone in Lawson does. He's Luke, a long missing war hero and the son of good ol' Harry (Martin Landau), owner of the town's long-shuttered movie theater, the Majestic. "Luke's" return so lights up Harry's life that Harry decides to light up the Majestic again.

Since Lawson lost 62 boys in World War II, Luke's miraculous return becomes a symbol of hope and rebirth. It's sort of like the French movie "The Return of Martin Guerre" ("Sommersby" in the American remake). But then, "The Majestic" is sort of like so many movies--the most shameless steal being the disabled vet from "The Best Years of Our Lives"--- that to list them all would take forever.

But what will happen when Luke gets his memory back, wonders the town doc (David Ogden Stiers), whose daughter, Adele (Laurie Holden) was Luke's prewar girlfriend. Which life will he choose? If you guessed Hollywood, you probably believed Robert Preston when he said there was trouble in River City (which, by the way, looks like Vegas compared with Lawson).

There is something tremendously appealing about simpler times. Rod Serling used to invoke it regularly in "Twilight Zone" episodes. Some moviegoers will get a similar satisfaction from "The Majestic." It will make them feel good, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if it were a better movie, it would make them feel very good.

This is a very odd career move for Carrey, whose button-eyed sincerity is alternately endearing and annoying. He's already proved his serious acting chops in "Man in the Moon" and "The Truman Show," so why do this? Actually, "The Majestic" often plays like "Truman Show 2." Only this time, Truman wants to stay.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution