Winston Churchill once said “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” This quote precisely summarizes the essence of the movie "Yes Man".
Yes Man is the story of Carl, a very unsociable and aloof man on the verge of being a pessimist. He finds excuses to avoid hanging out with friends, and is stuck in a boring job. He is tired of his annoying neighbor, the overfriendly manager at work, and for that matter, even the guy on the street distributing pamphlets for a band recital. Bottom line is that his life sucks!
Then comes the day when he meets an old pal, who seems to be in seventh heaven. He reveals the secret of his happiness and suggests that Carl become a "Yes Man" and get out of the rut. Carl attends the self-help seminar recommended by his friend, and then takes a vow to say "yes" to every question asked in order to seize every opportunity. What follows is Carl's journey of living life king size, doing things from bungee jumping, guitar lessons, and learning Korean, to taking a random flight, saving a stranger from committing suicide, going out of his way to give a hobo a ride home, and registering on a Persian bride finder website; things that he had never thought about before. It is a story of how seemingly useless things that he does willingly or unwillingly turn his life for good. He becomes optimistic about everything around him. Most of the humor is generated from things going haywire due to his over-zealousness until he learns to strike a balance.
Jim Carrey is amazing as Carl; he breathes life into the character. The rest of the cast is also well suited. The film has several funny moments, and some typical Carrey-isms.
Overall, it is a wonderful movie.
That said I would like to share some nice quotes on optimism-pessimism that I came across:
“Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both”
“The optimist already sees the scar over the wound; the pessimist still sees the wound underneath the scar”
“An optimist laughs to forget, a pessimist forgets to laugh.”
“Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!”
“In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.”
“A pessimist only sees the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all--he's walking on them.”
“Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.”
