Alas, poor Jim Carey, the once-proud comic now struck down by Robin Williams Syndrome. What's that? You say you're not familiar with the devastating effects of RWS? Of course you are, it's quite simple. The four stage disease goes like this:

Stage One: Stand up comedian builds and enormous, intensely loyal following largely on the strength of their manic, hyperactive personality. Television success leads to big screen stardom and a string of hugely successful commercial hits.

Stage Two: Comedian tires of always playing the buffoon and trades a pay cut for the chance to play some more subtle roles and meets with a surprising degree of success at this, too. The Fisher King and Good Will Hunting are the obvious examples in Williams' case, Man On The Moon and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind in Carey's.

Stage Three: Now believing themselves to be Big, Serious Actors, aforementioned comedian over-reaches their abilities and fails in the serious arena - Jakob The Liar and The Number 23 anyone? - prompting a return to the safety of their comic roots.

Stage Four: Comedian returns to comedy but - apparently now believing that simple entertainment is beneath them, or perhaps simply embarrassed by the extremes of their youth - now insists on inserting a Message (capitalized to denote seriousness) into their comedy. Comedian stops being funny.

Pay attention Jim Carey: you may not have descended to the depths of RV just yet but you're wandering merrily down that road. Take heed! Change course before it's too late! If you've seen the Yes Man trailers you've essentially seen this film. Carey plays a closed off man who denies every opportunity in his life and is slowly withering away as a result. Things begin to change when a former co-worker drags him out to a self help seminar and Carey agrees to reverse course and say yes to every opportunity that he comes across. When his very first attempt brings him into the orbit of an attractive young woman (Zooey Deschanel) he becomes a true believer, an all-out zealot. Foolish things happen.

Here's the thing about Yes Man. Carey's got some funny bits, and some of the casting is inspired - particularly Terence Stamp as the vapid self-help guru - but it is so transparent, so flimsy, and so incredibly obvious that any attempt to hang a larger meaning onto it is just foolish. Carey wants to be funny and truthful at the same time but the only thing that rings even remotely true about the whole exercise is that Zooey Deschanel has the power to make lonely men do very silly things should she choose to do so.

Hi, Zooey. I bought your record.

Ahem. The point. Yes, Carey has done worse - much worse - but he's squandering his talent with such blatant pandering to his audience and the fact that it'll probably work doesn't make that any less the truth. Be smart or be stupid, Jim. Be Andy Kaufman or Ace Ventura. But stop with this half-way stuff before it kills you.