The Majestic

Peter Appleton writes B pictures in Hollywood. Because he attended one meeting during his college years he is named as a communist suspect and the studio blacklists him. He drives off drunk, crashes and loses his memory. In a small town called Lawson they take him for Luke Trimble, a local boy declared missing in the Second World War. The town begins to release a grief frozen for nine years, and Peter learns for the first time what it is to be loved, as a man he is not. Frank Darabont directed and produced from a screenplay by Michael Sloane. Jim Carrey plays Peter. The cinema the film is named for was not real: it was a false front built in the municipal car park in Ferndale, and most of the buildings on the town's main street were altered by the production into period. The box office collapsed. Against a 72 million dollar budget it took 27.8 million domestically and 37 million worldwide. In December 2001 it was up against the first Lord of the Rings, Ocean's Eleven and Harry Potter. The reviews were cold, with Roger Ebert the exception, giving three and a half stars and writing that Carrey had never been better or more likeable. Who it is for: viewers open to old Hollywood and small-town sentiment. Who it is not for: anyone wanting the blacklist taken seriously. The film resolves it in a Capra key and the ending is too clean.