Helen and I went to see Yes Man on Saturday. I haven’t laughed in a film as much for quite a long time. It is a bit of a formulaic rom-com and it’s not really anything clever but it is good entertainment. The unusual pairing of Jim Carrey and Zooey Deschanel is very enjoyable and interesting to watch and the script is sharp and well-paced for the most part. The product placements got a little annoying early on in the film and the ending seemed quite rushed but overall it was a film that made me happy I’d seen it.

If you’re one of those people who still primarily associates Jim Carrey with The Mask and Ace Ventura, I suggest you watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind before you watch Yes Man. He’s not the one-trick-pony many of the critics paint him as.

The Corporation is a documentary about the rise of corporations (specifically LLCs – Limited Liability Companies) since the industrial revolution, their gradual encroachment on and commodotisation of what was once public property and their disregard for the environment and human welfare in the pursuit of profit.

Watch the trailer:

Much of the film is made up of talking head soundbytes from various professors, economists and CEOs. The most interesting of them, I thought, was the CEO of America’s largest carpet manufacurer who’s pragmatic but passionate approach to making his company more sustainable was quite inspiring.

The most worrying interviewee was, interestingly, not the commodities trader who during the events of this day 7 years ago was more interested in how it would affect the price of gold rather than the people dying streets away, but the lady from the marketing company who seems to realise that manipulating children to buy products (or nag their parents to buy them) is probably not ethical but is happy to do it anyway.

The gimmick used to tie the film (at least the first half) together is to establish the characteristics and behaviours of a corporation and then ask what kind of person would behave in that way? The answer they come to is that if a corporation was a person, it would be a psychopath. It gives them a nice tagline for the film but I think they were a bit one-sided in their psychoanalysis! In fact, the whole film was a bit one-sided. There were a few token pro-capitalists in there but most of what they said was quickly undermined by the next interviewee. I suppose, like many of the recent docu-films, they have to be a bit one-sided and extreme because they represent views that are counter-cultural and under-represented in our daily lives.

Anyway, on the whole I found it an interesting film and it was pretty packed with thought-provoking interviews and information – I feel like I should watch it again to absorb the stuff that didn’t sink in first time round – but I think to scrap corporations altogether (as at times it seems to advocate) is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I’ll certainly be digging into the extra features to hear more from the carpet man but I won’t be signing up for any anti-globalisation rallies just yet!

The filmmakers have put the whole film up on youtube (split into its 23 chapters) so you don’t even have to pay a corporation to see it (unless you are inadvertantly advertised to whilst on youtube). However, if you do buy the 2 disc DVD you’ll get 8 hours of extra features to trawl through too.