Man on the Moon (1999)

2.5 out of 4

Starring: Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Paul Giamatti, Courtney Love, Vincent Schiavelli

Director: Milos Forman

Time: 118 mins

Biographies should offer not only a factual history of a person's life, but also insights into the whos, hows, and whys of that person. Man on the Moon, the film biography of the late comic Andy Kaufman, offers the facts, but not much of the depth behind the man - the "what made him tick" factor. Kaufman was an enigma, a wickedly anti-establishment persona who did the unexpected so often throughout his career that not even his manager and his friends knew when he was speaking the truth or playing a prank. The film contains all his infamous moments, such as the gigs with his alter ego, the obnoxious Vegas lounge singer Tony Clifton, his frequent wrestling matches with women, and his run-ins with studio crew. But there is no exploration of the man himself - who really was Andy Kaufman, and why did he feel the need to alienate so many people in his life? What we have is a series of episodes presented as is, with no effort to delve into his inner mind. While true that not even his closest friends really knew who he was or why he did such things (a fact the movie conveys), there should have been some more of Andy being the real Andy. There are probably only 20 minutes in the film where Andy is not performing, and that is precious little for someone as complex, disliked and yet as ultimately revered as this comic genius.

The only saving grace in the film are the performances of Jim Carrey as Kaufman, Danny DeVito as his long suffering manager George Shapiro, and Paul Giamatti (from Saving Private Ryan and The Negotiator) as his collaborator Bob Zmuda. Carrey has been in the news lately, most notably for not being nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award, the second year in a row an acclaimed performance of his has been ignored (his role in The Truman Show was also shunned). It is, indeed, a very good performance. I've never seen Kaufman in action, but those who have say the resemblance is amazing. Carrey portrays Kaufman with a bravado that recalls De Niro's "method" acting for Raging Bull. However, it's not quite the complete change into a dramatic actor that everyone seems to think Carrey has managed with his past two roles. For one, both The Truman Show and Man on the Moon allow Carrey to occasionally go "wild" in the inimitable Carrey way. Don't get me wrong - I like Jim Carrey, but to convince me that he's made the transformation into a "dramatic" actor (as if that means one's a good actor and comedy isn't as hard to do), he will have to tackle something like a tragic Shakespearean role. Having said that, give me Carrey any day. His charisma is infectious, whether being dramatic or comedic.

In contrast, DeVito (as hapless Shapiro) is also excellent in his low key way. Shapiro recognises the talent in Kaufman, but is helpless in reining him in. And character actor Giamatti, who was memorable as the minor crim in The Negotiator, plays Zmuda as the one person who truly knows what's cooking in Kaufman's head, but is ultimately also baffled by his partner's antics. The love interest role is played by Forman regular Courtney Love (from The People vs Larry Flynt), but she appears relatively late in the film and has little to do. Interesting casting coups are the original cast of TV sitcom Taxi (minus Tony Danza), and David Letterman, in a re-creation of the famous appearance on his show by Kaufman and wrestler Jerry Lawler.

Forman is a great director, as evidenced by his two Oscars for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus. Here, however, he seems merely content to tell the story and nothing else. There is none of the energy with which he infused Amadeus, or the spirit that was in Cuckoo's Nest. That he is a great director of actors there is no doubt - Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, and F. Murray Abraham have won Oscars in Forman films, and he has coaxed Oscar-worthy work from Woody Harrelson and now Carrey - but he is let down by a script (by Larry Flynt scriptwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski) that just presents the facts and nothing about the man. For a biography, that is almost a glaring mistake.

The episodic tone doesn't help, either. The film jumps from an innovative opening where Kaufman introduces himself and the movie, to scenes of his childhood, and then to one of his early stand-up routines, all within the first 10 minutes. Later on, there's no sense of the passage of time, save for pivotal moments (the first Saturday Night Live) and lucky product placements (the poster of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in the background). Again, it would have helped if more scenes of Kaufman's private life were shown. There is one poignant moment near the end, when a cancer-stricken Kaufman travels to the Philipines for a miracle cure. There he finds people even more phony than himself. It's these last few scenes that come close to showing the human side of Kaufman, but it's too little, too late.

It's not hard to see why Man on the Moon was a relative failure at the North American box office, even given the pulling power of Jim Carrey and the pedigree of Milos Forman. I, myself, would think twice about seeing it again. It's worth catching for the performances (for which I give the 2.5 rating) and a few facts about a late, great, comic genius, but that's about it.

(c) Joe Wong