Admittedly, the reason I said “yes” to Yes Man (2008) was because of Zooey Deschanel.  I had the same thought process in 2008 when I saw it in the theater and tonight when I rented it on Amazon Prime.  At the same time, memory told me that the film would yield some interesting material for me to discuss from my Catholic perspective.  It did not disappoint.  This may be self-indulgent, but the way in which my mind goes from one inflection point to another as I watch these films is always interesting to me.  Going into this one, I thought I would be focusing on the importance of saying yes to God, and that is certainly a theme, even if the Almighty is not mentioned.  As our protagonist, Carl Allen (Jim Carey), begins his journey of acceding to everything the universe brings him, he notices how the world it opens up to him.  To this Christian, this is similar to what following God can mean for us.  Then it became about giving the proper amount of discernment to decisions, something which Catholics are particularly called.  Please treat this as a thematic roadmap as you read my synopsis.

The only roadmap that Carl has in the beginning is one of avoiding his friends and saying no to them, the opposite of what one would expect from a Yes Man.  This attitude is on display early when we see him ignoring phone calls from Peter (Bradley Cooper), Carl’s best friend, to come out for drinks.  Carl has been staying away from social situations for the past couple years since he and Stephanie (Molly Sims) divorced.  So determined is Peter to see Carl that Peter tracks the recluse to a movie rental store (remember those?) and forces Carl to come to the bar.  Once there, despite the joyous news of Peter’s engagement to Lucy (Sasha Alexander), Carl sees Stephanie at the establishment with her current boyfriend. The encounter deflates what little courage Carl had and he makes a clumsy exit.  The next day at work, the “no’s” continue as he dodges the invitations of his overly eager boss, Norman (Rhys Darby), to spend time together outside of work, as well as a number of other requests.  Mainly these revolve denying people loan applications at the bank where he labors as a loan officer.  While on break, he is accosted by Nick (John Michael Higgins), a former co-worker.  To Carl, Nick is no long the tight-laced financial sector employee.  Seeing Carl in that trap, Nick suggests attending a seminar about saying yes to life, led by self-help guru Terrence (Terence Stamp).  Predictably, Carl is dubious of such a presentation.  What changes his mind is an angry Peter showing up at his apartment later that evening, upset over Carl not coming to his best-friend’s engagement party.  Realizing he needs to make some changes, Carl goes to the forum to listen to Terrence, Nick eagerly sitting by him.  Terrence immediately notices the shutdown Carl and focuses on the newcomer.  Taking a position inches from Carl’s face, Terrence lists Carl’s social problems at a glance, convincing the doubter of the power of the “yes.”  My Catholic sensibilities were a little ruffled when Terrence refers to the pact to which he makes Carl swear to as a “covenant,” but basically Carl promises to acquiesce to any and all demands made of him.  Despite saying he will be different, Carl is not expecting to be immediately tested when, upon getting to his car, a homeless person (Brent Briscoe) asks for a ride.  With Nick on hand to remind him of his pledge, Carl lets the vagrant in and off they go.  The rough start to this path gets worse when after dropping off his passenger, his car runs out of gas.  While filling up his portable can, Carl meets Allison (Zooey Deschanel), who offers him a ride on her scooter back to his vehicle.  Their brief interaction concludes with her kissing him, and suddenly saying “yes” to things looks a lot more appealing.  For the next few minutes, we see a montage of a number of activities to which he agrees, most of which are innocuous, like taking flying lessons or learning Korean.  The more unsavory moments need not be enumerated.  On the professional side of the ledger, he begins approving every loan brought before him, which, rather than getting him in trouble, ultimately brings him two promotions.  In personal matters, him finally yielding to a guy passing out flyers for a local band brings him to a bar where Allison’s band is performing.  In addition to the bizarre music, she also leads a photography class in the early morning hours that combines taking pictures with jogging.  She is everything he wants to be, and she finds his apparently wild ways charmingly mysterious.  As a result, they begin spending more time together, culminating in a spur-of-the-moment flight to Lincoln, Nebraska, mainly because it is the first available flight out of town.  Nonetheless, they lean into the Midwestern capital’s eccentricities, and Allison loves Carl all the more for it, suggesting that they move in together. His hesitation is the first crack in their struggles.  When they return to the airport to go home, he is taken in for questioning by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), who are suspicious of him taking pilot lessons and briefly dating an Iranian woman.  To Allison, it shows that Carl is just saying yes to things for the sake of his program instead of being genuine about his desires, more specifically about her.  Despite his protests, she says she does not want to see him anymore.  After getting home, he gets a call from Stephanie, who has broken up with her boyfriend and comes on to him.  It leads to Carl’s first “no” in a while, and bad things happen to him.  The solution for him is to find Terrence and get the guru to break the covenant.  It results in a car accident, but Terrence is there when Carl comes to and advises a little more thought being put into his choices in order to make sure they are right.  With that, he speeds from the hospital in a borrowed motorcycle to see Allison.  He convinces her that his feelings for her are real and one the final shots them kissing.

Even if that closing kiss is a cinematic cliché, Yes Man has more going for it than the familiar tropes for which many critics panned it.  In this case, it takes having a spiritual life to understand the significance behind the developments I described in the synopsis.  For example, the extra consideration Terrence encourages are best arrived at through prayer.  However, no matter how much I have talked about prayer in my reviews, I am unsure as to how much I have tried to define prayer.  Basically, it is communication with God.  It always starts with Him, but it can never start if you are always saying no to Him.  There are some who deny God out of spite or mean spiritedness.  In some ways, they are the more reachable because such an approach is unreasoned, and I strongly believe (perhaps naively) that most people wish to be reasonable.  It is people like Carl who are the harder to reach, and it comes from a place of woundedness.  He has retreated from the world because the world hurt him.  Because God appears, sadly, to be such an absurd notion to many, they do not turn to Him in such moments.  Instead, they would rather do like Carl and avoid family and friends, or God, because all they know is rejection.  If they do not risk it, then less bad can happen to them.  Carl’s decision to make a change, like saying yes to God, leads to all sorts of joyful and wonderous possibilities.  What touched my Christian heart the most is him rendering assistance to the needy.  In addition to helping the homeless person, he volunteers at a shelter and collects donations for it.  The problem comes when Carl realizes that one cannot literally say yes to everything. There are moments when even Jesus said “no,” particularly before His Passion, when telling His disciples that they were not yet ready for complete Divine revelation.  I find an unexpected parallel to this in the slogan for Terrence’s seminar, “Yes! is the new no!”  As Terrence clarifies at the end, it is about knowing when it is right to say yes and no.  I am here to tell you that knowledge is best filtered through God.

Speaking of God, in the last scene in Yes Man, Allison and Carl are unloading a clothing donation with the help of a Catholic priest.  Though this movie is not religious, and inappropriate in a few moments, it is good enough to get my recommendations.  I would even say that it is worthy of a rental.