Lawrence.com

Many first-rate Hollywood filmmakers were affected by the anti-Communist blacklist during the 1950s. Talented writers like Dalton Trumbo ("Spartacus") and Abraham Polonsky ("Force of Evil") were denied work and screen credit for years because of their refusal to name Reds to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. And the great director Elia Kazan ("On the Waterfront"), who did give up names, faced protesters (wearing rat costumes) outside the Academy Awards when he accepted a lifetime achievement award.

Curiously, most of the films ABOUT the blacklist are pretty wanting. With the exception of Martin Ritt's "The Front," which stars a typically funny Woody Allen as a phony writer who poses so that the real scribes can use him to make a living, most films on the subject tend to be heavy-handed and preachy like 1991's "Guilty by Suspicion."

Despite a solid dramatic turn by Jim Carrey, "The Majestic" falls into this category. Carrey stars as Peter Appleton, an up-and-coming screenwriter. Don't let the meeting where unseen producers (played by Sydney Pollack, Rob Reiner and Paul Mazursky) butcher his material fool you; Peter's career is taking off. His first credited B-movie "Sand Pirates of the Sahara" is a modest hit, and his more serious A-picture "Ashes to Ashes" is slated to shoot in weeks.

Unfortunately, he made the mistake a few years back of attending one meeting of a Communist affiliated group simply because he was trying to impress a girl. Even though he has no political convictions, the studio kills his project.

Feeling desperate, Peter goes on an alcoholic bender. He winds up wrecking his car and wakes up on a beach with no memory of what happened up until that point. The locals in a small California town take him in. When Harry Trimble (Martin Landau), the owner of a rotting movie theater, gets a good look at Peter, he tells others that the stranger in their midst is really his son Luke. After proving himself a hero in World War II, Luke Trimble was missing in action, and no one has heard from him in nine and a half years. Having lost more than 60 of its young men in the war, the locals embrace Peter and treat him like a lost king. Luke's former girlfriend Adele (Laurie Holden) even begins to rekindle their relationship.

Peter's sudden disappearance only makes the authorities in Los Angeles want him more. His sudden departure misleads investigators to believe the apolitical Peter is really a top spy.

All of this amnesia and intrigue proves an ample opportunity for Carrey to demonstrate that he can do more than contort his face and body in eerily amusing ways. He projects an appealing innocence that's just right for the role.

The story itself, penned by Michael Sloan, needs development. One factor that helped give a bit of authenticity to "The Front" was the fact that supporting player Zero Mostel, director Ritt and writer Walter Bernstein all faced the blacklist in real life. However, Sloan and director Frank Darabont were born in 1959 and were children when the blacklist was lifted. The movie features locals in the small town admiring someone who tells off HUAC, which seems a little unlikely considering the popularity Redbaiting had until Sen. Joseph McCarthy's eventual disgrace.

You also wonder if Peter could ever really find happiness working in Harry's movie theater if he's so disillusioned with the filmmaking business. Sloane and Darabont try to inject some humor into the proceedings particularly with Peter's toy monkey and the insider banter that begins the film. The latter lacks the wit or authenticity that runs through flicks like "The Player," and the former sequences fall flat, making a viewer long for Carrey's broader gags.

It appears that Darabont has been closely watching old Frank Capra movies because the idealized community presented in "The Majestic" seems awfully reminiscent of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Meet John Doe" and "It's a Wonderful Life." Capra's movies probably benefited from their shorter running times and quicker paces. If there were gaps in credibility, there was less time to think "Isn't Jimmy Stewart's final speech a bit corny?" "The Majestic" is loaded with similar moments, but because it runs well past two hours, its logic gaps and gushy sentimentality seem magnified. As a result, Carrey's big speech toward the end seems more like an Oscar plug than a natural part of the story.

At a time when there is a lot of current debate about the rights of free speech and the ability to choose what groups a person associates with, a movie like "The Majestic" should be relevant if not even prescient. Sadly, because credibility takes a back seat to sentimentality, "The Majestic" comes up quite shy of its title.