Movie Crush Monday: CT & The Majestic

Oh readers, we've all survived another Monday. That's no easy feat, I assure you. Especially this Monday, which seemed determined to push your friendly neighborhood CT to the brink. But here we are, rounding the corner on another week. So let's all sit back, relax, and take a moment to talk about my weekly Movie Crush. 

That's right, we're going to follow the not at all difficult to look at Matt Damon over from The Brothers Grimm (awesome choice Little C!) to The Majestic. 

I freaking love this movie. It came out of Jim Carrey's period of taking on more serious roles, and in my mind it's up there as one of his best. If you haven't seen it, don't worry. I think The Majestic was wildly overlooked when it came out. But it's a really beautiful film that has stuck with me in a unique way. After I saw it the first time, I thought about it all the time for years until I finally just watched it again. 

Ok so The Majestic is about an up and coming screenwriter in the early 1950, played by Jim Carrey. His career is taking off, he's dating a gorgeous actress, everything is great- until he starts getting accused of being a Communist. Turns out he accidentally attended a Communist Party meeting when he was in college and now he's wrapped up in the McCarthy witch hunts. Seeing his whole life go down the drain, he drunkely crashes his car off a cliff. When he wakes up, his memory is gone and he's in a small California coastal town. The townspeople mistake him for one of their sons that was lost in WWII, and he goes with it, getting to know everyone in town and helping to rebuild their local movie theater, The Majestic. That's when the spoilers start to happen so I'll leave the plot there. 

The first thing you should know about The Majestic is that it's absolutely gorgeous. The cinematography is top notch- vibrant colors, beautiful framing, the works. I could easily take any frame from the movie and blow it up to poster sized to hang up as art. The first time I saw the movie, I was honestly most struck by how pretty it was. The plot didn't sink in really until I learned more of the history of the situation. But even then, I felt like this movie was one of those magical gems. 

The second thing is that this is (at least partly) about loving movies. Carrey's character is a screenwriter who has largely fallen out of love with his job. He's cynical and mean about the industry. But in the small town, helping to restore their theater, he starts to remember why we love movies so much. He starts to see the experience of going to the movies with new eyes. And that is the fastest way for a film to send CT crying into her scarf, because my goodness do I love movies like that. I love the experience of going to the movies and the history of the art form so much. 

The Majestic is also a movie that calls out one of the uglier times in our industry's history. The McCarthy era and the Blacklisting of screenwriters is something that still stains Hollywood, and you can see its affects in movies that came out this year. But there's an optimism to The Majestic that I just love. It's about this horrible era, but it's also about the way we can move forward from it.  

Happy watching!

CT