The Majestic

The Majestic is a 2001 American historical romance film directed and produced by Frank Darabont, written by Michael Sloane, and starring Jim Carrey in the title role. The film also features Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Jeffrey DeMunn, Amanda Detmer, Allen Garfield, Hal Holbrook, Laurie Holden, Martin Landau, Ron Rifkin, David Ogden Stiers, and James Whitmore. It premiered on December 11, 2001, and was released in the United States on December 21, 2001.

Plot
Rising Hollywood screenwriter Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) is blacklisted in the early 1950s Red Scare. Following a drunken car accident, he wakes with amnesia near the small town of Lawson, Calif., where the residents mistake him for Luke Trimble, a local boy declared missing in action during World War II. As Peter helps Luke's father (Martin Landau) and high school sweetheart (Laurie Holden) reopen the town's sole movie theater, questions arise about his true identity and motivations.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Jim Carrey's performance as Peter Appleton is great and fitting choice. Even Roger Ebert stating that he "has never been better or more likable".
 * 2) Much like The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, Frank Darabont was an awesome choice to directing this movie.
 * 3) The movie has great chemistry with each other.
 * 4) Jim Carrey kept continues to have a fantastic dramatic actor career, following the success of The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, and culminating with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
 * 5) Mark Isham's soundtrack is amazingly well done and fits on each scenes.
 * 6) The cinematography by David Tattersall is awesome and wonderful.
 * 7) Likable characters, such as Peter Appleton, a screenwriter who flees Hollywood after being accused of having communist sympathies; he loses his memory after a car accident and is mistaken for Luke Trimble, a soldier feared to be missing in action during WWII.

Reception
The Majestic received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, although many people are nowadays taking positive reception, with calling it underrated. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 42% based on 142 reviews, with an average rating of 4.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ponderous and overlong, The Majestic drowns in forced sentimentality and resembles a mish mash of other, better films.". On Metacritic the film has a score of 27 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

One exception to this was Roger Ebert, who awarded the film three and a half stars and praised the film and its ideals: "It flies the flag in honor of our World War II heroes, and evokes nostalgia for small-town movie palaces and the people who run them... Frank Darabont has deliberately tried to make the kind of movie Capra made, about decent small-town folks standing up for traditional American values. In an age of Rambo patriotism, it is good to be reminded of Capra patriotism - to remember that America is not just about fighting and winning, but about defending our freedoms." Ebert also praised Jim Carrey's performance stating that he "has never been better or more likable".

Videos
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Trivia

 * The town of Ferndale, California provided many of the interior and exterior locations for The Majestic. The namesake theater was built as a false-front in the Ferndale municipal parking lot, and many Main Street buildings were modified by the film company. Train scenes were recorded on the California Western Railroad in Fort Bragg, California. The lighthouse used was Point Cabrillo Light.