The Majestic

In The Majestic, Jim Carrey shows that he can do more than pull rubber faces. He plays the big lead role as the screenwriter Peter Appleton, who is on the verge of making it in Hollywood in the early 1950s. Life is looking bright, but then disaster strikes: he is summoned to a hearing of the House Un-American Activities Committee because in his early youth he attended a Communist meeting. In reality he has no political convictions whatsoever.

Peter Appleton crashes his car while drunk, and when he comes round near the small town of Lawson, he has no idea who he is. The town lost many of its sons in the Second World War, and Peter is the spitting image of one of them, Luke Trimble. The cinema owner Harry Trimble at any rate believes he recognises his son, and after a big town celebration held in Luke's honour, almost everyone is convinced - including Peter himself, who is still suffering from amnesia.

Luke is reunited with his fiancée, the beautiful law student Adele, and the romance between them is (re)kindled. Luke's return has given Lawson renewed hope, and this is symbolised above all by the restoration and reopening of the town's cinema, The Majestic.

The past catches up with Peter, however, in the shape of a couple of persistent FBI agents and his memory, which returns. He realises that his true self has little in common with the idealistic and selfless Luke - or does it? In a rather lofty and sentimental ending, Peter reveals what stuff he is made of. It is very American, very effective and very hard to stomach.

The persecution of Communists during the Cold War is always good material, but unfortunately the film sacrifices realism in favour of a happy ending. In the real Hollywood, many careers were ruined. The film's actual focal point is Peter Appleton's development, which is depicted in an entertaining and amusing way. Why the film has to run well over two hours, however, is a question to which one finds no satisfactory answer.