Jim Carrey in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (Matt Haviland)
Jim Carrey was my first favorite actor, and maybe my favorite. Among the likes of Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Daniel Day-Lewis, he may seem outmatched. However, we must not forget the Carrey who acts the shit out of a movie. Remember The Truman Show, where his gusto and gastric (at least giddy) humor were used like Paul Thomas Anderson used Adam Sandler? There’s nothing better than a comedian working even better dramatically. Carrey has done that repeatedly, whether it be his authentic, depressing Man on the Moon, smarmy I Love You Phillip Morris, or practically divine Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Carrey is not so outmatched by my other three.
Given that he’s been scarce since the early 2000s, when we get a new film, we hope it’s not The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, which fell into the sinkhole of absurd comedies Will Ferrell opened with Anchorman. Cartoonish concepts. Bitterly superficial characters. Angry vibes. Jokes intentionally stupid, and story intentionally unconvincing. Big set pieces that strangle bad shtick and keep twisting. And I mean the first Anchorman. When there’s no story or character, you’ve got to be twice as clever. But with many Ferrell offsprings, you get lethargic innuendo or antihumor that fall flat because there’s no emotion to build into laughter. With Burt Wonderstone, we face endless (I mean endless) minutes of careless plotting with jokes that aren’t funny. Playing Criss Angel to Steve Carell and Steve Buscemi’s Siegfried and Roy, Carrey tried his hardest to make it work. All they gave him were bad lines, great costars and a costume.
Ever since seeing Eternal Sunshine, I’ve been hoping for more Carrey drama, or at least Carrey comedy like Bruce Almighty or Yes Man. And I’m amenable. I love many maligned films. Ridley Scott’s The Counselor is Shakespeare on steroids. Spectre is James Bond’s great arthouse movie, with beautiful performances, visuals, language [“You’re a kite dancing in a hurricane”]. The Star Wars prequels are pure enjoyment, ten times richer than The Force Awakens. But my soft spot for personas non-memberberry does not extend to bad movies. Wonderstone feels like rope burn. Whereas even the unfunny Two and a Half Men can be enjoyable for its story, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone doesn’t have the charm of a three-act Lorre. We hope for greatness whenever we get Carrey, and unlike Hanks, the late Seymour Hoffman, or even Day-Lewis (who feels more prolific, for goodness sake), whenever Carrey appears in a trailer, I’m pleased, thinking, “Will this be another?” The Incredible Burt Wonderstone feels like a wasted birthday.
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Interesting list! For Weltz though, I’d have picked The Green Hornet. Bloodnofsky was the best part of that shitshow.