By Guy Wheatley
The Texarkana Gazette

Describing Majestic as symbolic is like describing the sun as bright. The film uses metaphors for metaphors. In a cruel twist of ironic fate, events have made the movie itself a metaphor for post-9/11 America. The screenplay was originally entitled The Bijou. The new Title, The Majestic, is a fair description of the film itself.
Producer/Director Frank Darabont is an old film aficionado. He uses the sliver screen on the screen as a guidepost for our trip into his world. He uses a corny screenplay written by the main character to show us how shallow he is at the beginning of the film. A Streetcar Named Desire plays as the love interest starts to grow. Then, as we know a life-changing climax is reached, we see Gort destroying the world in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Darabont gives us an unabashed, sappy, tug at your heartstrings story about love, loyalty, patriotism, and duty. As with his two most memorable films, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, Darabont sets the script in the recent past. Set in 1951, the film evokes feelings about citizenship, patriotism, and duty that would be a harder sell in a later time. While the story borders on being preachy the focus stays on the journey of one individual.
Peter Appleton (Jim Carrey) after being blacklisted by the House Un-American Committee, drives up the California coast with no particular destination in mind. A car accident leaves him stranded in a small town with no memory. Appleton bears a striking resemblance to local war hero Luke Trimble, a WWII veteran missing in action nine and a half years ago and presumed dead.
Peter/Luke begins a journey discovering who Luke was and what he meant to the people who loved him. He is guided on this voyage by Luke's father Harry, (Martin Landau) and Luke's girlfriend Laurie Holden. (Adele Stanton)
Luke's apparent return stirs the small town of Lawson to an awakening. Lawson has given more than its share to the war effort. Including Luke, 62 of Lawson's young men have paid the ultimate price. As Mayor Cole (Jeffrey DeMunn) says, "We haven't complained." But the losses have stunned the town into a dazed lethargy. A memorial statue, given to the town by President Roosevelt, sits in the town hall basement. Again the Mayor says. "We just weren't ready to have it out where we could see it yet."
Having his son returned to him spurs Harry to reopen the family theater. This spark of renewed life spreads to the rest of the town and its inhabitants. Luke helps the town face life again after the suspended animation of grief.
The audience soon realizes that we have been given no history on Appleton and begin to wonder if Appleton really is Trimble. Darabont pointedly leaves this issue open until close to the end. It is a stroke of story telling genius that allows us to join Carrey in exploring the emotions his character feels. There is no question that Luke is a hero, but is he Luke? Peter/Luke searches within himself trying to find the strength and morality that Luke would have. Carrey is superb in conveying the powerful and swirling emotions of the story to the audience.
Luke, the theater, and the town slowly come to grip with the reality that life must go on. It is not possible to honor great deeds, or great men while hiding from the past. Peter and the town learn that there are still struggles to face. The most important discovery Carrey's character makes is not who he was, but who he is.
This movie delivers its message with emotion. Mark Isham's score is an excellent vehicle to bring the proper mood to each moment. There are Big Band and Boogie numbers that help take us back to an earlier time. But Isham's haunting melody reminds us that loss and discovery are personal things.
There's not likely to be middle ground on this movie. People will either love or hate it. Those that don't like it should take the gifts back to the Whos.

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