The Truman Show Review
by "Ted Prigge" (chandlerb AT geocities DOT com)April 27th, 1998
THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998)
A Film Review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Peter Weir
Writer: Andrew Niccol
Starring: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Paul Giamatti, Philip Baker Hall, Ted Raymond, Marc Macaulay, Holland Taylor, Harry Shearer
Truman Burbank is an insurance salesman who lives on a gorgeous, perfect Florida island, is married to a perky blond wife, and who has never really left the island he lives on. He's also the star of a television show phenomenon, of which he is conspicuously not aware. As a baby, Truman was placed inside a giant dome that covers the entire world he knows of, and has been raised so that every second of his life is monitored by about 5000 cameras living inside his world. And Truman has no clue that any of this is fake.
But every now and then, something will happen that hints at some kind of conspiracy against him. In one of the film's earliest scenes, Truman leaves his house, and a tiny sattelite falls from the sky and lands on the street outside his house. A scene later, the radio reports that this was something that went wrong with a satellite in space. Sometime later, Truman sees a bum who looks just like his father, who drowned in a boating accident, but before he can positively identify him, people come out of nowhere, drag him onto a bus, and leave him behind. The morning's paper says that the city is cutting back on the bums allowed to stay in town.
"The Truman Show" is being billed as Jim Carrey's attempt at drama, after being heralded by the American Public as a star-studded comic actor, in such flicks as "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," "Dumb and Dumber," and "Liar Liar," but this kind of thinking is only for people who push actors who do comedy into a corner with all the others, like Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, and say "You can do drama, but when you do it, you're doing it as a crossover." Little do most of these people realize, these guys started off as regular actors, doing dramas and comedies and everything else, but found they could make a living starting out in comedy. Would Robin Williams become a star as quick as he did if he just did Off-Off-Off-Off-Broadway dramas? Because of this typical fallacy, people will be thinking of this as "The Film Where Carrey Does Drama," which will make people shudder and stay away, and others going just to see if he can pull it off.
This is sad because "The Truman Show" is an incredible film. Whether viewed as a drama, a comedy, a kafkaesque nightmare, a satirical take on American media, or even a highly unsubtle Christ story, "The Truman Show" works, and its star, Jim Carrey, creates one of the most human characters to inhibit a film in a while, even if he's been living in a giant, man-made globe his entire life, and has no idea what lies out there.
The key to this film is an incredibly complex yet simple script by Andrew Niccol, who just wrote and directed one of '97's most intelligent films, "Gattaca." That film was one that was filled with lots of great ideas which worked well together, and it even showed us the powerful emotions of one man who is struggling to overcome the odds of society. "The Truman Show" works on the same kinds of levels. But Truman, the star of the universally broadcasted show which airs for 24 hours every day, is a man who doesn't know that he is limited in what he wants to do.
In the first scenes, we see Truman doing his daily routine of giving himself a pep talk in the morning, greeting the neighbors with his catchphrase ("Good Morning; and if I don't see you later, Good Afternoon, Good Evening, and Good Night!"), driving to work as he listens to a relaxing piece by Mozart, buying a paper, and working hard at his job. He has a big giant smile, which is something Carrey fans will not be shocked to see. But we also see him in quiet reflexion later on, and even doing something secretive that we discover about later on. He puts on a facade just like the rest of us, and when he's not around anyone, is as depressed as the lot of us.
That's why when he really discovers that his whole life is a sham, it's so devastating. It occurs all of a sudden, but it's something that he's been hinted at his whole life. We see flashbacks he has (shown on his "Greatest Hits" tapes, which are sold throughout the world), including one where he fell for a woman (Natascha McElhone) who was not the actress who was supposed to be playing the girl he eventually marries (Laura Linney, taking a break from the strong female roles to play a perky wife), who tries to tell him that his life is a TV show, but fails. Instead, she becomes one of the near misses in his life, a woman he pines for. How many times has that happned in your life, where you meet someone you're intrigued by, but who you lose due to something beyond your control, only to peak your interest for the rest of your life?
As the film goes on from here, Truman tries to escape from his life, and we begin to meet the men behind the show, who desperately try to cover up, using anything they have up their sleeves. The entire show was created by a creepy looking man named Christof (no, there's no subtlety here), played by Ed Harris, who at times touches the image he has created which is blown up on a giant TV set on the wall of the observational hut which controls the show, sometimes creating music to go along with the events unfolding (one of them is actually Philip Glass!). We see him completely obsessed with his creation, and trying to control it as much as he can, but having to sometimes deal with TV executives (one played by Paul Thomas Anderson regular, Philip Baker Hall), and having a crisis when Truman begins discovering the truth (also, look for one of the control men played by Paul Giamatti, who played Pig Vomit in Howard Stern's "Private Parts," and basically stole the film from him).
People may say that all this doesn't sound like a "drama"...well, it ain't. It has a serious point, and has some very dramatic moments, but it's really a very mature comedy. The film is hilarious, especially in scenes where we see self-reflexivity in the actual going-ons in the Truman world. For instance, the film is run by product placement, and several times in the film, a character will pick up a product, the camera will zoom in on them, and they will talk about how great it is. Weirdly enough, this gimmick actually gets funnier as it goes on, since the show's veil of reality gradually weakens as the film moves on.
The film is not only funny, but incredibly moving. "Gattaca" was actually criticized for its lack of human emotion (not by me), but people will be blown away by how much humanity Niccol puts into his script for "The Truman Show." We understand the pain Truman lives in because underneath everything, he's really a human being, and he has to deal with the same kind of problems we deal with, even if it is in a much restricted space. Truman is not some really weird guy who looks like that guy from "The Mask." Instead, he's just an average guy who just happens to be the star of a TV show which he doesn't know about. The film deals with the fear that your entire life is one big sham put on for you, basically because a person only knows what he knows and not what anyone else knows. We experience life as it comes to us, not through anyone else. I've often had the fear that everyone I know was placed before me on purpose, that there's some designated course I'm supposed to follow, and I'm sure that there are other people who have had this fear. Kafka had a similar fear. Of course, I'm not Kafka and neither are you.
This film deals with that idea, but it also has a bitingly saitirical edge, that all of this works great as a form of media for the masses. With shows like "Cops" and "The Real World" being so popular nowadays, it's not long before something as crazy as this occurs. We've seen horrific things about life shown on "Cops" and those stupid Fox specials ("The World's Greatest Police Chases Part Nineteen!"), and we've seen people who actually WANT to be filmed for the entire world to see in half-hour doses on "The Real World;" it's only time before people say they want a real-life "Truman Show."
This is because humanity's the most fascinating thing in the world. We, as humans, love to view other people doing things. We don't know why, but we do. Voyeurism has been dealt with in movies, most notably in "Rear Window," but "The Truman Show" takes it to a whole other extreme. The film shows people all around the world being brought together, and even relaxed, by watching Truman live his life. There's a man shown in a tub who lives his entire life along with Truman, sleeping along with him, and hanging on to the curtain when something dire happens to him. There's a group of Asian people who try to learn English by watching Truman talk to people. And there's even a bar where "The Truman Show" is on all the time, and they even have a counter which shows how many days the show has been on the air.
While this sounds like a horrible thing to do to a human being, the film accurately, and deftly shows both sides of the issue. In one scene, we see Christof arguing with someone over it, and later on, pointing out all the great things about the world he's created. There's pain in the world he's created, but the world has been tailor-made to suit you, while reality is everyone for themselves. It's an interesting point, but the other side just has better ones.
I mentioned it was also an "unsubtle Christ story." I was getting there, but I'm afraid it needs little explanation. Christof is God, and Truman is Christ, the martyr for the entire world to feel better by watching him live his life in a sealed-off world. For those who doubted, even when we discover that the guy who created the world is named Christof, there's a memorable scene where Truman walks on the water, or at least seems to.
The brilliance of this film is how it brings all of these ideas together, instead of seperating them apart and saying "it can be this, and it can be this, and it can also be this." This works with other films, but it woudn't work with "The Truman Show." While this may seem to cerebral, it's nevertheless engrossing, and it manages to not shoot over the audience's head, but also not shoot below.
Oh, and it stars Jim Carrey, who has been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, much in the same way Jerry Lewis is. But here, he emerges as a real actor, someone who can play a real character, and who can still put his personal touches on the performance. Yes, Carrey is funny, and there are times when he does some of his usual schtick. But what he doesn't do is overact, or underact. And he doesn't look uncomfortable, straining to keep his hyperkineticity inside. I used to kinda like him, but now I respect him because I've seen him act like a person. If he keeps this up, he may become the predecessor to Robin Williams instead of Jerry Lewis. But really, who cares if the film starts Jim Carrrey not acting incredibly hyper? What you want to watch for is the film itself. And if you're really going to talk about Carrey, talk about how his performance fits in with the rest of the film instead of standing apart from it.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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