Spoilers

We were going to be in a pickle with the A to Z of physical media, due to my own rules of not rewatching Bond. My only film beginning with a Y was You Only Live Twice. Step forth my sister who, a few weeks into me starting this, got rid of all her DVDs… I was livid. So what did littleun do? Buy me a DVD for a film beginning with Y so I could complete the challenge. So here I am watching Yes Man. A film I know little about other than Jim Carrey saying yes to everything. I’m sure it’s going to be funny though so I’m looking forward to this.

There’s just something very late 2000s about this whole film that I can’t quite ignore. From the retro phones to the random arcade dance floor moments, it feels like a proper time capsule. Even the side characters feel pulled straight out of that era, like the jogging photo group which is so random, or the fact that there’s always someone the lead knows whos in a band that no one actually goes to watch. & of course, she’s that exact manic pixie dream girl type, taking Polaroids of strangers while riding a motorbike like that’s completely normal behaviour. I’m sorry, but that’s a walking red flag if I’ve ever seen one. Also… answering unknown numbers constantly? Absolutely not. That’s a no from me every time. Could just be millennial core though.

Speaking of red flags… this whole “say yes to everything” concept gets uncomfortable very quickly. What starts off as a fun idea just turns into this weird seminar cult vibe where saying no is punished. There’s even chants, rules, & that whole “no man” which is just a bit odd. It’s like, you can’t just audit your entire life like that. There has to be some level of boundaries. Saying no isn’t “not living”, it’s just… being a normal person with common sense. Also if you actually think about it, the idea falls apart… saying yes to everything? That’s not great when it comes to, you know… consent. Some of the situations he ends up in feel less like self-improvement & more like a safeguarding issue waiting to happen.

Then you’ve got all these completely random moments thrown in that don’t really go anywhere. The whole thing with the homeless man (which already feels a bit dodgy in context), the bizarre dream sequence with the fly, the random guy threatening to jump, the sudden guitar playing & it just keeps piling on. There’s even bits like throwing a rock at a bank, which just come out of nowhere & isnt funny. The film seems to think this all counts as character development, when really it just feels messy. Even the montage, which should be the bit where everything clicks, feels rushed like they just wanted to tick off as many “yes” scenarios as possible & move on but it could be more

Jim Carrey is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. You can tell he’s trying to carry the film with his usual chaos. there are moments where it works, but the story just isn’t strong enough to back him up. Meanwhile, Bradley Cooper turns up looking about 12 years old, & his character barely even has a defined role until suddenly he’s important right at the end. It’s one of those “oh yeah, he’s a lawyer now” moments that just comes out of nowhere. Also Jim Carrey and car trouble… I swear it happens in half his films at this point.

The romance doesn’t really help either. There’s just no real chemistry between them, it feels forced from the start, like the film is ticking the rom-com box rather than actually building something believable. & some of the choices around that relationship are just odd. Selling someone’s face as art without their consent? Fine apparently, because romance.

There’s even moments that are just a bit… much, like the whole dentures thing for oral with an elderly person. It’s all very “rules don’t apply if it’s quirky”, which just doesn’t quite land.

There are also so many little moments that made me stop and go “what?”. Like how one bit of overtime suddenly leads to a promotion & a massive pay rise, in what world? Or how answering unknown phone numbers becomes a personality trait. Or the amount of product placement thrown in, I swear “Red Bull” gets said about 10 times in the space of about 5 seconds. The drinking session is weirdly tame, the fight scene feels over the top, & then you’ve got things like the Harry Potter party, which is possibly the most aggressively 2000s thing in the entire film… although I will admit, the Dobby & Mad-Eye Moody costumes did make me laugh.

It also leans hard into rom-com clichés as it goes on. There’s the random barn for shelter, the airport-style “first flight out” decision making, the big race across town to prove a point, all the usual stuff. & then suddenly there’s things like a telephone museum, because why not? Even the plot conveniences start stacking up, like Bradley Cooper’s character magically being a lawyer when it’s needed, or everything tying up a bit too neatly with the whole confession about saying yes not really having any real consequences.

By the time you get to the ending, it just leans fully into cliché. There’s the emotional speech, the grand gesture, all for a message that basically boils down to “say yes, but only when your heart tells you”, which is… kind of obvious? It feels like a lot of chaos & weirdness just to land on something that simple. Although I will say, the “let’s be scared together” line is actually quite nice, it’s probably one of the few moments that genuinely works.

& then, of course due to how the film has gone, it ends on something completely random again, because why not, a naked cult convention. Because at that point, you just kind of have to accept that this film is going to do whatever it wants.

This isn’t Jim’s best work, no way, and it is very much a rom-com product of its time. Perfect for background noise and a little bit of chaos, but you can definitely find far better Carrey films and rom-coms out there than this.