'Yes Man' - Jim Carrey

I had to go see Jim Carrey in Yes Man. I noticed a while ago that after he went into drama movies (The Truman Show) he started reliably and repeatedly getting into movies that had the topic of 'Mind Control,' 'Conspiracy Theories,' 'Breaking Free,' or similar subjects, and that I almost always liked and agreed with the overall heroic/positive spirit of the movies. (I didn't quite get 'The Number 23' but I still liked it well enough.)

As soon as I read the summary of what 'Yes Man' was about, I recognized the events that have been happening in the past few months of my life. I was a 'no-woman,' a hermit, a recluse, with a minimal number of real-world friends - my friends were mostly online, or faraway friends from my adolescence when I lived in WV. I avoided taking on any new burdens of any kind because I felt like I couldn't afford to expend the energy needed to maintain friendships and do projects and activities. (Sadly, it turns out I was kind of right about that. I promised a lot of things I couldn't deliver. I hear people say 'knowledge is power,' but for me personally, 'good health is power.' My latest bout of chronic fatigue and health problems have made it difficult for me to do much of anything at all.)

In the past few months I started saying 'yes' to more people and activities. I associated it with the 'Economic Stimulus Package.' That's when it began. I began experiencing much more direct, explicit 'outside intervention' in my life from the voices. It led to my doing things that I didn't necessarily feel like I could do - I felt like I just didn't have enough energy and I wasn't reliable enough to maintain new activities or keep giving attention to new friends.

Well anyway, I enjoyed the movie. I didn't cry at any point, but I 'sort of almost cried' once or twice. There is a subtle way of making a humorous movie, where something in it suggests 'beautiful' and 'funny' at the same time, and it breaks your heart. That didn't quite happen in this movie, and I won't go back and see it seven times, but I still give it a positive rating. I like the picture on the poster, where he leaps joyfully in a field of flowers in the sunlight. The movie could have been made with a little different style so that it more accurately represented that beautiful-flowers-field poster feeling.

A long time ago, the old episodes of The Twilight Zone used to be 'What If?' stories. What if some strange 'rule' was broken or changed - how would it affect your life and the world? They questioned many social rules and laws of physics. Even on a low budget, the shows were interesting. It's been so long since I saw TZ that I can't think of many examples. Interesting concepts and questions will make a good movie or TV show, on a low budget, even if they don't have amazing CGI special effects.

'Yes Man' was like that. It had a 'social rule' concept. What if you had to say yes to every opportunity? What do you define as an 'opportunity?' Is it the same thing as just being commanded to do things?

When I saw the description I knew I would like the movie because it was what I've been doing for the past few months of my life. My version isn't as extreme!

It fits into the theme of 'Jim Carrey and mind-control related movies.' It also fits into the 'Jim Carrey's Movies Are Just Like Me And My Life' theme, which is a semi-serious, semi-joking observation. It really did happen that, during the Economic Stimulus Package last May, some things began happening in my life which led to my trying to make new real-world friends and connect with more people instead of being a recluse. And it followed the theme of saying yes to people and friendships even though I felt like I couldn't be reliable enough to do much with them, and I felt like I had nothing valuable to give.

Other bloggers talked about this movie - I read them before going to see it. Some people didn't like it because it was predictable. Like I said, it wasn't absolutely amazing and I won't watch it over and over. I liked it anyway.