EDtv Review
by Christian Pyle (tlcclp AT aol DOT com)March 6th, 2000
Edtv
Reviewed by Christian Pyle
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (based on a screenplay by Emile Gaudreault and Sylvie Bouchard)
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Woody Harrelson, Sally Kirkland, Martin Landau, Ellen DeGeneres and Rob Reiner
Grade: B
TV producer Cynthia Topping (Ellen DeGeneres) has an idea for a cable network specializing in "reality shows": take an average joe and broadcast his life on TV everyday. A talent search turns up Ed. Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey) is a nobody, a 31-year-old video store clerk with no ambition. He takes the offer and Ed TV is born. The show becomes a phenomenon when a romance develops between Ed and his brother's girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman). However, Shari objects to dating with millions of peeping toms watching. Ed doesn't understand; although he's strangely unexcited about being a star, he accepts his on-camera life casually.
Life becomes increasingly difficult for Ed and his family. Everywhere he goes crowds and cameras follow, and the constant attention threatens to devour everyone around him. "USA Today" takes polls on whether Shari is good enough for Ed. When Ed's father (Dennis Hopper) returns after a twenty-year absence, the cameras record Ed's emotional confrontation with his mother (Sally Kirkland) and stepfather (Martin Landau). When Ed decides he wants out, the network executive (Rob Reiner) says that Ed's contract gives them the right to film him for as long as they want.
When "Edtv" was first advertised, I had the same reaction as most people: "Didn't they already make this movie? It was called 'The Truman Show.'" I ignored the denials of director Ron Howard and various stars as they made the rounds on interview shows and waited until "Ed" came creeping to cable before seeing it. There are basic similarities in the plots of "Ed" and "Truman" (man's life is broadcast on TV, man decides he wants out of the glass house) and in the things they satirize (loss of privacy, pop culture crazes), but the focus is entirely different. In "Truman" those issues were secondary to the more esoteric theme of an everyman (Jim Carrey as Truman) discovering that a god (Ed Harris) controls his life. In the best parts of "Ed," the focus is squarely on the twin streams of voyeurism and exhibitionism that fuel our media-saturated society. And the other parts? By the end, the romantic comedy has taken over center stage, and the movie's attempts to imitate the comedy of "There's Something About Mary" fall flat (like Ed does on Elizabeth Hurley's cat in one such scene).
Matthew McConaughey is the worst actor in Hollywood, but he seems to have finally found his niche in this movie. He was incredibly unconvincing as a lawyer (in "A Time to Kill" and in "Amistad") and as a theologian (in "Contact"), but as a lazy doofus McConaughey lives the part. Among the supporting cast, Martin Landau deserves special mention for his touching performance as Ed's ailing but still upbeat stepfather.
Ironically, a movie about shameless self-promotion offers lots of opportunities for . . . you guessed it . . . shameless self-promotion. The Ed TV broadcasts include an advertising area at the bottom of the screen, and the logos of many real life corporations appear there. Pepsi even puts a soda machine in Ed's apartment. Also, cameos abound. Look for Jay Leno, Bill Maher, RuPaul, Michael Moore, George Plimpton, Merrill Markoe, and Arianna Huffington to appear as themselves.
Bottom line: When "Ed" is on target, it fires straight and true. The rest we've seen before.
© 2000 Christian L. Pyle
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