The Majestic Review
by Mark O'Hara (mwohara AT hotmail DOT com)December 23rd, 2001
by Mark O'Hara, The Movie Page
The Majestic (2001)
Fans of the movies – that is, people who hold pleasant illusions about old movie palaces and the role of film in our culture – should want to see Frank Darabont’s THE MAJESTIC. The work does satisfy our cravings for mid-twentieth-century Americana, for “the good guy winning” in the end, for truth triumphing over cowardice. All of this is fine, except that the movie in which it is contained is overlong, predictable and much too derivative.
Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) drives a Mercedes in 1951 Hollywood because of his success as a writer of B movies like SAND PIRATES OF THE SAHARA. He hopes to make it to the list of A writers soon, with his screenplay ASHES TO ASHES. The rub is that he makes it instead onto the blacklist compiled during Senator McCarthy’s witch hunt; Appleton is one of many whose careers were threatened. Here the premise is not fresh, though Darabont handles well the scenes involving Appleton’s car accident and ensuing amnesia, followed by his introduction into the California coastal burg of Lawson – where Appleton keeps hearing his face is “familiar.”
One reason we like the now-nameless character is that he is honest, never claiming to be the town’s lost hero Luke Trimble; it is the townspeople who insist he is. Through his interaction with the characters peopling the town – especially with Adele Stanton, the newly hopeful love of the dead war hero Luke Trimble – we witness the construction of endearing friendships and the re-construction of the circa 1925 palace, replete with neon sign, florid floral carpeting, et al. In the background, however, lurk the specters of Peter Appleton’s past, led by a Congressional committee determined to haunt both him and the hard-won freedoms enjoyed by all Americans.
Frank Darabont is clearly fond of casting character actors. Give him your tried, your wrinkled, the wretched-looking cast-offs yearning for your juicy roles. James Whitmore as Stan the dog-owning man delivers effortless work, just as he did in Darabont’s 1994 THE SHAWSANK REDEMPTION. David Ogden Stiers plays Doc Stanton with exemplary and subtle emotion. Martin Landau as Harry Trimble, the father of the all-American lost boy, comes through with perhaps the best supporting turn. Other interesting faces surface too, such as Frank Collison (veteran of such films as OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? and series like DR. QUINN, MEDICINE WOMAN); I relished seeing Bob Balaban, venerable Hal Holbrook, and Daniel von Bargen too. The cast is very large, and the feeling is nostalgia for the bigness and simplicity of the United States at mid-century.
The leads also perform well. Jim Carrey has already proven himself a fine dramatic actor several times over – though I think those who are hailing him for a nomination for this vehicle kid themselves. Carrey shows often his ability to express complex emotions through small flexings of facial muscles; he also captures what must have been his director’s demands for melodrama, as some moments go over the top into delightful exaggeration.
Laurie Holden as Adele Stanton provides a curious mix of beauty and strength. She and Luke were childhood pals who later fell in love, and she would seem to be the most qualified to pronounce Luke as the bona fide boyfriend. She is almost too glossy for the role, an innocent Veronica Lake, and one could mix her up with Appleton’s starlet companion who appears early in the film. Ultimately her acting skills pull her through and we like her genuine sweetness.
The editing work could be tighter. THE MAJESTIC takes up two and a half hours, about 20 or 30 minutes too long. Perhaps Darabont’s storytelling adheres too closely to the time in which they are set: the second act in the small coastal town, the widowed father rationalizing and creating the possibility of his son’s physical existence nine years after he left for World War II. (C’mon – no one notices telling birthmarks, the shapes of teeth or fingernails…?) This section drags. Plus, the menacing government guys oblige by appearing every 20 minutes or so until a huge entrance in their mountains of Buick-made metal. Do we need so many reminders that Luke/Peter will soon lose the idyllic comfort of his other life?
I’ve seen only a couple of reviews, and THE MAJESTIC is being compared to works by Frank Capra. Yes, I see that: truly American story in which truth wins out in the end. But I’m sorry, a few parts are just plain old-hat, one section even suspiciously similar in rhetorical structure to Sullivan Ballou’s letter to his wife Sarah, which was included in Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary THE CIVIL WAR (Mr. Sloane, screenwriter, did you think no one would notice?)
I’m not sure about the music – in places it is very catchy, though the original score by Mark Isham is not as sweet and haunting as his work for OCTOBER SKY, a soundtrack I went out of my way to purchase. A couple of period pieces add nice touches.
Would I recommend THE MAJESTIC for a sure-bet holiday watching experience? No. I am looking forward, frankly, to a couple of handfuls of other new releases. But if you are a fanatic for things filmic, you should take this one in. It’s no CINEMA PARADISO, but it does pack an adequate wallop, and probably would satisfy viewers eleven and over, as a PG rating carries only a couple of questionable bits of material these days.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
