Genre: Drama / Romance
Length: 2h 29m 17s
Director: Frank Darabont
Tagline: Sometimes your life comes into focus one frame at a time.
Plot outline: Peter Appleton is an ambitious young screenwriter working for HHS Studios during Hollywood's Golden Age, 1951 in particular. "Ashes to Ashes" is about to be released, and he's dating the attractive movie star, Sandra Sinclair. Just when everything seems to be going his way, it is discovered he (unwittingly) attended a Communist meeting during college when pulled there by his girlfriend at the time, and thus heavy suspicion settles over him and he'll have to stand before Congress. Afraid of what might happen if they don't, HHS cancels Appleton's contract and aborts the release date of the film. Appleton promptly begins to wallow in self-pity and spends nearly an entire night at a bar, then drives intoxicated through the streets of the California course until plummeting into a stormy river and getting knocked unconscious. Washing up on the beaches of a small town called Lawson. Although the people there are pleasant and likeable, the town is depressed and lifeless due to having lost 62 of it's sons in World War II. One of them, Luke Trimble, was missing in action; and miraculously, Peter bears a striking resemblence to the black and white photos, close enough to fool even Luke's father, Harry. However, thanks to the blow to the head and the alcohol, Peter has suffered amnesia and decides he must be who they think he is. Besides, it's not a bad life: Luke's beautiful lover, lawyer Adele Stanton, is all over him, the town has suddenly come back to life with excitement, and he and his "father" rebuild a movie palace Harry used to run, the Majestic. Unfortunately, Peter's memory returns in time for G-men to track him down. Summary written by Bloggers! In this Capra-esque drama set during the 1950's blacklist, a young, ambitious Hollywood screenwriter loses his job and his identity, only to find new courage, love and the power of conviction in the heart of a small town's life. Summary written by {john.pollono@castle-rock.com} Peter Appleton is a script writer during the 1950's who is suspected to be a Communist among many Hollywood film people (which is not true). Along the way, he gets into a freak car accident and suffers amnesia, then ends up in a small California town. There he lives in a run down movie theatre where he learns the magic of experiencing a movie in it. Soon, the Communist hunters find him and call him to testify before a Senate hearing committee. Summary written by Ali Nasser {hnasser@intouch.com}
Comment: Jim Carey is a man who literally re-defines himself in the mold of the small-town hero. A recently black-listed Hollywood screenwriter, Carey, is leaving Tinseltown on a feel-sorry-for-yourself drunk drive and winds up washed up (literally and figuratively) on a beach having suffered amnesia. He's taken to a picturesque coastal California town and is mistaken (or is he?) for one of their boys lost in WWII. And what a boy he was--handsome, caring, talented... and engaged to the local Drs. daughter. Carey's character is confused and taken in by the love given by this town for their supposed returning war hero. But is he that man? Will he marry the girl "he" left behind? Will the commie chasers from J. Edgar Hooverland find him and make him face the music? Who is he, really! This is a throw back to the Kapra-Korn of earlier years. This is a movie that unabashedly creates a small town America that never was so polished and gleaming. But despite the cornball-ity of the whole thing, the sincerity of Mr. Carey's acting along with a fine ensemble cast pulls it off. It successfully explores the questions of just who are we, as inviduals and as a society? Can we measure up to the ideals that we hold for ourselves and for our nation? When is expediency--discretion, the better part of valor? Is there a nobility in self-sacrifice and in the angels of our naive and better natures? I like movies (and books and things) that ask questions and explore territory that is often neglected in this fast-cut, MTV film't age. Sure it's corny. More than a bit unrealistic, but the sincerity of script and cast pulls it off. What is the greatest generation? Any one where enough of us face the music... and dance.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
Country: USA
Language:
Subtitels: No ()
DVDs: 1
IMDB address
| Actors: | ||
| Jim Carrey | as | Peter Appleton "Luke Trimble" |
| Bob Balaban | as | Elvin Clyde |
| Jeffrey DeMunn | as | Ernie Cole |
| Hal Holbrook | as | Congressman Doyle |