Anyone has the capacity to change their lives – all it takes is the ability to say “yes”, even in those moments where it feels impossible. The power of positive thinking, and the changes that follow from a shift in mindset, has become the bread and butter for this steadily growing class of new-age psychologists and life coaches, who believe that simply being more open to new experiences can wholeheartedly change one’s life. It’s a nice concept, albeit a trivial one that has been pushed past the point of parody over the years – and this is made even more evident through the existence of Yes Man, in which director Peyton Reed tells the story of an ordinary man who has grown complacent in his ambivalence towards his humdrum existence, and who is simply watching the days pass him by in the hopes of eventually getting the break he yearns for, but is not willing to work towards. This is until he is shoehorned into attending a seminar in which the foreboding guru coerces him into a scenario where he is forced to say yes to everything, with the consequences of turning absolutely anything down promising to derail his already fragile existence. This leads to many hilarious scenarios as our protagonist takes this demand very seriously – and while he is initially quite incredulous towards its power, he soon learns that it evokes something quite deep within his soul, leading him to re-evaluate his dull life and find hope in the most unexpected places. Reed, who had already made well-received films like Bring It On and The Break-Up (not to mention his staggering work on Down with Love, by far his greatest cinematic achievement), had some good ideas, and working with a team of writers who were well-versed in the comedic arts, he cobbles together a lovable little comedy that is as engaging as it is delightfully strange, and while it does have a few clear shortcomings, it ultimately does prove to be as entertaining as it could be given some limitations, being unexpectedly earnest in ways we may not have anticipated at the outset.

Yes Man belongs to an era of comedies in which they masquerade under the guise of being high-concept stories that are enriched by a genuine curiosity about much deeper issues, when in reality they are usually just as surface-level and simple as the more mainstream works that they were trying to overtake as far as dominating the industry. The proverbial “dumb” comedy was steadily losing momentum at the time (it has subsequently made something of a comeback, albeit in quite a different form), so it seemed intriguing at the time to be presented with a film that was essentially designed to provoke thought and conversation, without sacrificing the zany antics that persist throughout. Reed had all of this in mind when venturing into this film, which he (and co-writers Nicholas Stoller, Jarrad Paul and Andrew Mogel, a rogue’s gallery of mid-2000s comedic scribes who had penned several films around this time) took the self-help book of the same title by Danny Wallace, an equally entertaining but also much richer examination of these themes, and reworked it into a story of a man who genuinely believes that he has to say yes to everything, or face some severe consequences. While it does heighten the stakes throughout and makes it a lot more engaging in terms of the comedic scenarios, it does have its roots in something very relevant and timely, which is the importance of being open to new opportunities, and the way one’s life can change the moment they decide to embrace the challenges that come with stepping outside of their comfort zone. An entry into the small and somewhat divisive sub-genre of “self-help comedies” in which deeper messages are conveyed through zany, off-the-wall filmmaking, Yes Man is very entertaining, even when it is sometimes a bit limited in scope and willingness to go beyond its own clearly rigid confines, which can prevent it from truly achieving greatness.

To bring Yes Man to life, Reed had to find the perfect actor to embody the lead, and no one fit the mould better than Jim Carrey, who was at his peak as arguably the world’s premier comedic actor, and someone whose popularity and talent were a deadly combination when he was firing on all cylinders, which he did frequently. This film joins the likes of Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty in forming an unofficial trilogy of stories where Carrey plays ordinary men who find themselves facing unexpected obstacles after being forced to accept new caveats, struggling to make the most of these situations while also realising how it can improve their domestic and professional lives once they embrace the lessons within. Carrey is always willing to do whatever he can to bring these characters to life with vigour and wholehearted commitment, even when the films are not always good enough to meet him on quite the same level. He’s terrific in Yes Man, a film that was fortunate to have him, since many other actors would have resulted in a much less effective film, and which is bolstered enormously by his charming performance. It’s not the best work he has ever done, but it relies very much on his natural charisma, of which he has an abundance. He’s joined by a strangely star-studded ensemble – Zooey Deschanel plays his love interest, and she herself was at the peak of playing the same derivative characters based on her quirky manic pixie dream girl persona, but she does her best to infuse the role with some depth, while Bradley Cooper has a major supporting role as one of Carrey’s friends and the catalyst for his change in perspective. Terence Stamp, who is always a welcome addition to any film, is the eccentric self-help guru who sets the protagonist on his path, and there’s a scene-stealing supporting turn from Fionnula Flanagan, who makes the most of a very trivial character. Outside of Carrey, no one else necessarily shines, but the film does benefit from good work across the board from its entire cast.

While I’d hesitate to call Yes Man hollow or inconsequential, there are certainly some elements that become more clearly difficult to embrace once we move past Carrey’s committed performance and begin to notice some of the seams in the construction of an otherwise solid film. The main shortcoming of this film is quite simply that it lacks a clear direction on where it wants to go. It is only loosely inspired by the original book, using its main ideas but approaching it from a different angle as a means to make it easier to understand in terms of how it navigates some of these ideas. The concept is undeniably very good, and it has enough charm to make up for some of the more obvious flaws – but it ultimately isn’t enough to give the film the energy it needed to sustain quite a simple premise, and a lot of it requires us to suspend disbelief a bit too frequently to be entirely effective. It has the right ideas, but it doesn’t know how to follow through on any of them – the first act is spent introducing us to all of these wacky characters, but outside of Carrey and perhaps Stamp and Deschanel, none of them are particularly compelling, being primarily quite shallow in terms of how they are developed, glorified set dressing designed to push the story forward without leaving any real impression, which can be extended to make of the film’s overall themes, which feel misplaced after some time. A stricter, more economical approach (which would require shaving off about 20 minutes of the most superfluous content) would have massively improved the film and made it a much better exploration of these ideas. Arguably, no one is stepping into a film like Yes Man with the intention of being educated or psychologically provoked, but considering its underlying ideas, it would have at least been a welcome change of pace to have a broad comedy focus on tact more than spectacle, a minor but still notable shortcoming in a film that does entertain, but not as much as it could have with a bit more work.

Yes Man is certainly not the kind of film that will redefine the way we view any of its themes, nor will it challenge our perspective beyond the obvious ways in which it tries to get us to think deeply on a number of themes. At its core, this is a film that means well, but doesn’t have enough momentum to actually do anything other than the bare minimum, even when it is actively trying not to succumb to the same overall tropes we usually associate with these films, which makes for an entertaining comedy, but not one that is going to necessarily change anything or do what we haven’t seen done on multiple occasions. It isn’t entirely shallow, and there’s a lot of heart and soul in this film, but it’s not enough to compensate for its shortcomings, which prove to be insurmountable obstacles on this film’s journey to trying to be genuinely captivating, when in reality it is consistently playing in a minor key, not doing anything we haven’t seen before, and not necessarily earning much credibility as far as its underlying conversations tend to go. It was the last film Reed made before moving into directing big-budget blockbusters, so it does feel slightly disappointing that someone with a clearly unique vision and an obvious prowess for structuring a film has not been able to return to this style of filmmaking, since it did feel like he was on the precipice of doing something astonishing, which is only weakened by a few small flaws that do eventually overtake the merits slightly, but not enough to make Yes Man any less endearing or entertaining, which was the entire purpose of this charming and intriguing film.