Thinking about "Yes Man" as a Uniquely 2008 Film

Here's the premise of my thought, you're probably thinking why is this guy blogging about this film that came out almost two years ago. I've actually seen it a couple times and today suddenly have something to say about the film.

So...I hear a news story today, something or other about banks being careful about what loans they are approving. Kind of a no-brainer story since we all know about the current financial condition, credit crunch, and so forth, but whatever. It was what it was. The story compared now to a time when far more was approved.

But for some reason, I got a picture in my head of Jim Carrey in the film "Yes Man" saying "yes" to every loan application that came across his desk and that his fulfillment of people's dreams with small loans got Jim Carrey a promotion.

This film which came out December 2008, was almost irrelevant in some of it's messages before it even came out. I was thinking when I heard this news story about how a Jim Carrey "yes man" probably wouldn't do very well in the current financial climate. In fact, even if he did a good job, probably not a whole lot of "bank bonuses" for Carrey.

I've talked before about how certain modern film capture a time in a way that really, in my assessment is praiseworthy as a time capsule to "the way things were." A recent post I did on this concept of a contemporary film as a unique time capsule is the 1938 film Ninochtka which has interesting jokes about Nazi's and Russians that certainly wouldn't have been appropriate, or fit into a story 5 years later.

Granted, hard to say where "Yes Man" will fall in the future perspective of film, but even a couple years after it's release, I see how this film is uniquely 2008, and couldn't have come out much later.

You have the post-college 20 and 30 somethings having Harry Potter parties. And you have Jim Carrey making a trip to a Blockbuster that hasn't shut down yet.

And of course, you have Carrey approving those loans at the bank. Yes...yes...yes. With no worry for the bankruptcy's that these individuals will be filing in 2009 and 2010.