***1/2 out of ****
Year: 1999 Starring Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti, Vincent Schiavelli, Peter Bonerz, Jerry Lawler, Gerry Becker, Leslie Lyles Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Directed by Milos Forman Rated R
Perhaps the best question to ask of a biographical film on the late comedian Andy Kaufman is whether or not it finds Kaufman's true essence, if it helps you discover what Andy was really like. It is indeed ironic that "Man on the Moon" does exactly the opposite-and may be better off for it. Milos Forman's biopic on the mercurial performer doesn't claim to get a handle on what made Kaufman tick. It offers up suggestions and possibilities, but can't quite arrive at a conclusion. Why might this be a good thing? Because "Man on the Moon" has few pretensions. The film doesn't take one tack on Andy Kaufman and call it the ultimate truth; rather, it explains his ultimate mystery. No one knew who Andy was, not even his closest friends. What "Man on the Moon" displays is how Kaufman's comedy affected others, his friends, co-workers, and audiences. Aided by an astonishing performance by Jim Carrey in the lead role, Forman's rendition of this is impressively entertaining and strangely affecting.
Carrey plays Andy Kaufman, the late comedian whose life "Man on the Moon" chronicles. The film shows Andy as a showman from the start, "performing" to the characters on the wallpaper of his childhood bedroom. We then flash forward to Andy as a young man, performing in local nightclubs. Told by one owner that he must do a more conventional act, Andy replies he doesn't want to go for cheap laughs and refuses to merely "tell jokes." He gets his break when he goes on stage pretending to be a shy foreign man bumbling through his act-until he launches into a smashing Elvis impersonation that thoroughly impresses talent scout George Shapiro (Danny DeVito), who lands him appearances on "Saturday Night Live" and a plum role on the TV sitcom "Taxi" doing his foreign-man shtick as Latka, the lovable mechanic. Kaufman, however, treats his regular job almost as a chore, merely a vehicle he can use to pursue more creative endeavors. With the help of his friend and writing partner Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti) and eventual girlfriend (who meets Andy initially by accepting his challenge to a wrestling match) Lynne Marguiles (Courtney Love), Andy creates the repulsive lounge singer character Tony Clifton (for whom Andy demands appearances on "Taxi," with disastrous results), fools with the sketch-comedy show "Fridays," takes up pro wrestling as "Inter-gender Champion," getting into a fight with fan-favorite Jerry Lawler, and plays Carnegie Hall. Kaufman's life was tragically cut short in 1984 by a rare form of lung cancer. He was 35.
"Man on the Moon" clearly leans on how well Carrey performs in the lead role, and fortunately, he is fantastic. For a lifelong comedian who has spent almost his entire career mugging for the camera, this is an impressive accomplishment. Carrey truly embodies the character and spirit of Andy Kaufman. It's hard to explain. Certainly the actor does a fine job of imitating Kaufman's stunts. His Clifton impression is dead-on, his SNL "Mighty Mouse" singalong could easily be mistaken for the real thing, and his "feud" with Lawler that came to a head on David Letterman's "Late Night" is surprisingly convincing. But that's all imitation-impressive, but not indicative of a real performance. What Carrey really does well is to convince the audience that they are not watching a Jim Carrey movie. Without a doubt, we are always watching a movie about Andy Kaufman, not a movie about Jim Carrey playing Andy Kaufman. This is a real leap for Carrey. His star vehicles ("Ace Ventura," "The Mask," "Dumb and Dumber") were exactly that: means for Carrey to show off, whether you found him amusing or not. "The Truman Show" gave us some sign of him breaking out of this rut, but it was still a role that required him to mug, since he was playing a famous TV star whose life has been constructed to get precisely those reactions out of him. Here, he cannot do his usual act. He must convincingly embody another person. For my money, he did as good a job as anyone could have done.
The supporting performers turn in solid turns as Kaufman's closest companions. DeVito comes off well as George Shapiro, though the role seems to hamper the later recreation of "Taxi" scenes, since he can't reprise his part on that show. I liked seeing Paul Giamatti as Bob Zmuda. The man is a talented character actor who does more good work here. Courtney Love's part is surprisingly small, almost to the point of becoming the dreaded Superfluous Love Interest. To her credit, Love doesn't overact and doesn't distract, accepting her limited role gracefully. What could have been a major annoyance barely registers. Several star cameos show up in reenactments of Kaufman's antics. Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd, and Carol Kane make appearances as "Taxi" cast members. Real former pro wrestler and current broadcaster Jerry Lawler appears in a rather large part, and does fairly good screen work, to my surprise. A scene where he and Kaufman explain their act to George Shapiro is priceless. Current WWF commentator Jim Ross also appears, to no one's surprise, as a wrestling announcer. Along to recreate the "Late Night" fight are Letterman himself and bandleader Paul Shaffer. SNL producer Lorne Michaels also plays himself. Seeing these now more grizzled stars playing younger versions of themselves is a bit jarring at first, but not hard to get used to.
"Man on the Moon" refuses to be a conventional biopic. Many will go into the film expecting to get some kind of great insight into Kaufman's life. Why was he the way he was? Why did he choose to pursue such a career, and why did that career take such unusual turns? "Man on the Moon" doesn't know. It doesn't claim to know. In many other films, this could be seen as a cop-out, but Forman's film is not, because it explains exactly why this approach has been taken. There are several telling exchanges between Kaufman and his business partners, friends, and lover. When Lynne tells Andy "There is no real you," the film's vision has become clear. No one knew who Andy Kaufman was. If you're looking for insight into that, you've come to the wrong place. What "Man on the Moon" claims is that Andy was all out there in his performances, but you had to figure out where that was.
Andy was not a comedian; he was a showman, a man seeking to get people's attention, to see their reaction to his performances. Some got it, some didn 't, and if you're going to appreciate his brand of "comedy," you had to first understand what he was trying to do. Explaining this is where "Man on the Moon" really succeeds, because it starts out with perhaps the most clever opening of the year: Carrey comes out, brandishing Kaufman's wide-eyed stare and tells the people in his Latka voice that since so much of it was false, he had to cut the movie so much that there was no movie left. He then plays his mini record player and begins rolling the credits. After a bit of silence, Andy returns and says that was to clear out all the people who wouldn't understand. This is Forman's way of letting you know that this will be a story told on Andy's terms, not one to give us a sentimental picture of his life, but one that will leave us guessing. Andy often had people so turned around that they didn't know if he was performing or being serious. When he read "The Great Gatsby" in its entirety to a theater full of rowdy college students, only those who stuck around really "got" the joke. Not many cast members got the joke when Tony Clifton trashed the "Taxi" set. Not many women got the joke when he put himself up as a misogynist wrestler. Even when he was diagnosed with cancer, no one believed him.
Likewise a whole lot of people won't really get "Man on the Moon." There is sure to be a whole lot of disappointment coming from audiences viewing this film. Some might see it as a mere chronology of Kaufman's life and career, pointless and empty. Others might think Kaufman was a repulsive person, not worthy of having a feature film based on his life. But "Man on the Moon" is really Andy's final performance, his final refusal to play by the rules and give the people what they think is best. The irony here is that everyone who is disappointed with this film, everyone who didn't get what they expected, are those that would be clowned by Andy consistently. So a lot of people are going to dislike Forman's film. So what? George Shapiro complained to Andy after a performance, "They hated you out there." And Andy said just what he' d say about this film: "That means we're a success."
-reviewed by Shay Casey
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