Imagine being a person who has to say YES to everything.  How would it feel?  (Incidentally, isn’t “why not?” the same as YES?)

In “Yes Man”, we are introduced to Carl Allen, (and you know this part already — but in case you didn’t:) a self-loathing, middle-aged, loan approval officer-slash-divorcé whose idea of a “parteh” night is renting out DVDs, while dismissing his friends’ offers to do ANYTHING — even to the point of dropping their calls.  (Why bring a phone in the first place?)

The audience is immediately given a sense that Carl’s negation to everything is what’s making him miserable.  (Rephrased: was he miserable because he said “no” to everything, or did he say “no” to everything because he was miserable?)  That is, until his old friend Nick tells him about the cult of Y-E-S.

A nightmare (that shows off a goofy dead-face that only Carrey can pull off) provides him the wake-up call to attend the cult of Y-E-S seminar.  (Hesitant at first.)  Terrence Bundley, the Y-E-S guru, ably played by Terence Stamp (whose roles always vary from the wise/retired/always-right sage — also, he’s in that Valkyrie movie too) then breaks down his walls of “NO” — and forms a covenant with him to say Y-E-S to everything.  He (with A LOT of push from the overzealous Nick) embraces the idea.

An observation into causal responsibility: If he said “no” to that bum ride, would he have gotten to meet Allison?  (Zooey Deschanel’s character) Of course that COULD have been the case, but it’d have made for a much shorter, none-too-interesting movie.

What follows is Carl developing this motivation into a complete lifestyle philosophy — no matter how dangerous (agreeing to a bar fight), educational (taking up lessons in guitar, speaking Korean, flight lessons) or downright bizarre/abusive (Sexual favors from an elderly neighbor, giving bums a ride, that Persian bride thing) the situation gets.

Let’s backtrack a bit — agreeing (with A LOT of nudging from Nick) to give a bum a ride causes his car to lose gas, making him walk to the gas station, where he meets the irresistably-adorkable Allison.  When offered a ride back, Y-E-S train!

Agreeing to everything seemingly has its perks for Carl — and turning his back on the covenant brings him misery.  (Which reminds me of My Name is Earl’s “karma.”)

(By now you’re getting it, so…)

The movie turns into a cutesy romance — Deschanel’s bright-eyed, impulsive, the-world-is-a-playground-and-I’m-an-indie-rock-chick-slash-photo-jogger (whatever that is) Allison goes along with Carrey’s Y-E-S train ride.  (Insert Zero 7’s “Pageant of the Bizarre” here.  Also, who shall console those of us who are bereft of some Zooey-lovin’?  (AS IF the bereft have a chance of getting her — Cheekie!  Let’s break up Ben and Zooey already!  And yes, this is a parenthesis-within-a-parenthesis.  And YES, I just started this and the last sentence with a conjunction.))

The conflict arises when the FBI detain Carl and Allison at the airport after an impromptu impulsive trip — at which point Allison finds out about the motivational program and questions Carl if ANY of his decisions with her were made under its influence.

It’s a fun(ny) ride — with a slightly-less-manic Jim Carrey and adorkable-without-hardly-even-trying Zooey Deschanel.  The jokes and the funnies may not always work (“I’m gone-a-ree-ya!,” or that elderly sexual favor thing.) — it’s okay, because it’s distributed in a way that tickles the audience through most of the 104-minute running time.  (Some of the best ones happen early on, like when Carl was evading invitations by feigning an active life.  — Fun fact: in the bar scene where Carl slips on ice cubes?  He really did slip, hit the floor hard and he broke 3 ribs!)

Performances to watch out for are Rhys Darby (that’s Murray to you!  If you don’t get that, better catch up, season 2 of the Conchords start … this week!) as Carl’s awkward/eager manager, and Terrence Stamp as the enigmatic-and-knows-that-his-YES-thing-is-flawed-but-still-believes-it guru.

A scene to watch out for is the “Jumper” scene — because it utilizes that song in the most-obvious way possible, and then you wonder why no one’s done it before.  Hey-larious!

Give “Yes Man” a try?  Why not?

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Have some Munchausen By Proxy w/ Zooey Deschanel:

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Many thanks to Azrael for the invites!

Related posts:

1. the human centipede / how cult films work.

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