I imagine every single review of "The Majestic" will compare it to the works of Frank Capra, and that's as it should be. 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. If we defeat the enemy at the cost of our own principles, who has won? Darabont, the director of "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," works on big canvases with lots of characters we can sympathize with. Carrey (who has never been better or more likable) plays Peter Appleton, a shallow, ambitious Hollywood script writer who once, in college, attended a left-wing political meeting because he wanted to pick up a girl there. That wins him a place on the blacklist of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and he's subpoenaed to testify. No one believes he was a communist (which was not against the law in any case), but to keep his job he is required to kowtow to the committee and "name names"--read a list of other communists. Since he doesn't know any, the committee will helpfully supply it.
Depressed and confused (his starlet girlfriend has dropped him like a hot potato), Peter drives north along the coast. His car plunges off a bridge, and he's discovered the next morning with no memory of who he is or how he got there. A kindly dog-walker (James Whitmore) takes him into the nearby town, where he looks kind of familiar to everyone. Finally old Harry Trimble (Martin Landau), who ran the local movie theater, blurts it out: This is his son Luke, lost in the war, now returned from the dead after nine years.
The town embraces Luke, and so does Adele Stanton (Laurie Holden), his onetime girlfriend. The town lost more than 60 of its young men in the war and has fallen into a depression. Somehow Luke's miraculous return inspires them to pick up the pieces and make a new start. Why, old Mr. Trimble even decides to reopen the Majestic Theater again.
The second act of the film involves Peter's gradual absorption in the identity of Luke. Darabont paints the town with a Capra palette: Everyone hangs out at the diner, there's a big band dance down at the Point, Luke and Adele walk home down shady streets just like James Stewart and Donna Reed. Some, including Adele, have their doubts that this could really be Luke, but keep them to themselves.
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