# Man on the Moon (1999)

### reviewed by
Christian Pyle

    Man on the Moon
    Reviewed by Christian Pyle
    Directed by Milos Forman
    Written by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski
    Starring Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti, and Jerry
    Lawler
    Grade:  A-

Many geniuses have been misunderstood, but Andy Kaufman may be the only one who made being misunderstood a goal. Milos Forman's "Man on the Moon" chronicles the career of the comedian. Several of the reviews I read of the movie fussed that Forman did not explain Andy. These reviewers missed the point: no one could explain Andy, not even Andy.

As the movie begins, Andy's father finds young Andy facing the wall in his room performing to an imaginary audience. Even as a child, he lived his life on an imaginary stage. Grown up, Andy (Jim Carrey) plays the comedy clubs to mixed reactions, but he catches the eye of talent agent George Shapiro (Danny DeVito), who manages to get Andy a part on the sitcom "Taxi." Reluctantly, Andy agrees with the condition that lounge singer Tony Clifton be a regular guest star. George goes to see Tony perform and is horrified by the singer's belligerent attitude toward his audience. Backstage, George discovers that Tony is Andy in disguise. The secret soon becomes public knowledge, and people book Tony with the assumption that Andy will appear. However, there's a joke within the joke: Andy's friend and collaborator Bob Zmuda (Paul Giamatti) often performs as Tony.

"Man on the Moon" follows Andy through all his "greatest hits"-the Elvis imitation, the Mighty Mouse routine on "Saturday Night Live," the rise and fall of "Taxi," the aborted sketch on "Fridays," the wrestling matches with women, and the fight with Jerry Lawler on the Letterman show-up to his untimely death from cancer. The movie feels episodic, jumping from memorable moment to memorable moment, but this may be a result of how many outrageous and original things Andy did in his brief career.

What makes the movie work is Jim Carrey's sensitive and subtle performance. I've never been impressed by Carrey's acting before, not even in "The Truman Show." However, in "Man on the Moon," he proves that his rubber face can convey complex emotions. Carrey's Andy is a mixture of a mischievous imp, a driven artist, and a confused soul who is as much a prop in his own madcap artform as everyone around him. He laments to his love, Lynne Margulies (Courtney Love), "Nobody knows the real me." She responds, "There is no real you." Carrey's expression registers a combination of bemusement and horror as he replies, "Oh yeah, I forgot."

The movie's best scene comes near the end as Andy travels to a ramshackle clinic in the Philippines in search of a miracle cure for his cancer. Pale, bald, and confined to a wheelchair, Andy watches as another patient is treated; the doctor plunges his fingers into the patient's abdomen and rips out a handful of tissue. The wound heals itself immediately. After Andy takes his place on the table, he can see that the doctor has the wad of tissue concealed in his palm. Even as his eyes register the hopelessness of his situation, Andy laughs, realizing that life had finally played a prank on him.

Rather than attempting to explain Andy Kaufman and his unusual form of performance art, "Man on the Moon" urges the viewer to contemplate the questions posed by Andy's life: Was there a point? Did he know what it was? Why attracted him to playing creeps like Tony Clifton and the "bad-guy wrestler"? Did he want his audience to hate him? Did he hate them? Was his life a joke in search of a punchline?

Wrestler Jerry "the King" Lawler plays himself in his bouts with Andy. Other players in the Kaufman saga appear briefly as themselves, including the cast of "Taxi" minus DeVito (Jeff Conaway, Marilu Henner, Judd Hirsch, Carol Kane, and Christopher Lloyd), David Letterman and Paul Shaffer, Improv owner Budd Friedman, and "SNL" producer Lorne Michaels. The real George Shapiro and Bob Zmuda also have cameos, in addition to exec-producing the picture.

Director Forman and the writing team of Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski share a fondness for unusual biopics. They previously collaborated on "The People vs. Larry Flynt," a biography of the "Hustler" publisher. In addition, one of Forman's best films is "Amadeus," the story of Mozart, and Alexander and Karaszewski wrote Tim Burton's "Ed Wood," about the "world's worst director." Somehow this strange group of bizarre personalities seems like the perfect company for Andy Kaufman.

Bottom line: A thought-provoking, funny, and poignant portrait of a comic genius

    © 1999 Christian L. Pyle

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