Man on the Moon

Milos Forman - Director
Jim Carrey - Andy Kaufman
Paul Giamatti - Bob Zmuda
Danny DeVito - George Shapiro
Courtney Love - Lynne Margulies
Jerry Lawler - Himself

Jim Carrey is magnificent as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon

Man on the Moon tells the story of late comedian Andy Kaufman. Kaufman was one of the most eccentric, misunderstood entertainers of his time. He enjoyed singing and playing large scale practical jokes (he once hired 40 actors to runthrough the Chicago Zoo in a group screaming that there was a lion on the loose.) The people he worked for wanted him to simply tell jokes and make the audience laugh. When ABC offered him a spot on the sitcom "Taxi," he was more offended than honored. Andy seemed disgusted and offended by conventional entertainment.

Andy Kaufman achieved much of his fame on the show Taxi, playing the wacky character Latka. Eventually his standup audiences only wanted to see him as Latka, which offended and wounded Kaufman. He felt like a sellout, getting cheap laughs by acting out scripts which he didn't write. He would make public appearances as phony, foulmouthed lounge singer Tony Clifton more to entertain himself than his audience. He did his best to offend his audiences because he and his friend/writer Bob Zmuda found it funny. The only problem is that he would never let the audience in on the joke. Eventually Kaufman became a victim of his own game, hated by audiences and distrusted by almost everyone he knew.

Jim Carrey is perfect in this role. He can do the funny parts as I knew he could; he's Jim Carrey - he's great at being silly, making funny faces and making people laugh. It's the way he exposes the vulnerable, kind man within Kaufman that makes this a career performance for Carrey. Kaufman is able to laugh at himself and at the rest of the world. He treats every project he undertakes as a sort of psychology experiment to see how his audience will react to whatever he's trying to put past them. Rather than giving people what they expect, he gives them something different. Unfortunately, most people hate that. And once people were on to what sort of humor he was doing, they expected Kaufman to shock them everytime. There are few things tougher than trying to shock someone who is expecting it.

This film is terrific all the way around. It's everything a movie should be. It's funny, it's touching, and it's entertaining. That Carrey didn't recieve an Academy Award nomination for this role is obscene. The acting performances are great all throughout the cast, and the film's ending is one of the most touching I've ever seen. Sadly, Andy Kaufman is one of those people that was only really appreciated after his death.

Man on the Moon earns 4 wombats out of 4