The Truman Show Review
by Edward Johnson-ott (PBBP24A AT prodigy DOT com)June 7th, 1998
The Truman Show (1998)
Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Paul Giamatti, Philip Baker Hall, Ted Raymond, Marc Macaulay, Holland Taylor, Harry Shearer. Written by Andrew Niccol. Directed by Peter Weir. 103 minutes.
PG, 4 stars (out of five stars)
Review by Ed Johnson-Ott, NUVO Newsweekly
www.nuvo-online.com/film/
Archive reviews at http://us.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Edward+Johnson-ott
To best enjoy "The Truman Show," there's a couple of things you need to do. First, disregard the hype. Ads for the film use a quote from Esquire calling it "The Movie Of The Decade." That sort of hyperbole does nothing but raise audience expectations to such an unrealistic level that disappointment is inevitable. Second, try to put aside any preconceptions you have about Jim Carrey. If you loved his rubber-faced antics in films like "Ace Ventura," you need to understand that he doesn't do that here. Conversely, those who dismiss Carrey as a juvenile embarrassment, the Jerry Lewis of the apocalypse, should realize that there's more to the man than his geeky persona suggests. This is Carrey's breakthrough movie, where he finally takes the lampshade off his head and proves that he can act.
Carrey plays Truman Burbank, the first child legally adopted by a corporation. From the moment of his birth, Truman has been the unknowing star of the most popular TV series in history, a 24 hour a day epic about him. Truman lives in Seahaven, an idyllic small town which is actually a gigantic set inside a huge domed studio. The beautiful blue skies and gorgeous sunsets are all special effects, and the entire population of Seahaven are actors, except for Truman Burbank. Raised in this idealized, artificial world, Truman shares a home with a fake wife, spends his days at a fake job, and confides his hopes and fears to his fake best friend, unaware that 5,000 cameras are monitoring his every move. Unaware, that is, until one day when the blue sky rips and a stage light plummets from above and crashes on the street near him. Minutes later, while driving to work, he hears a newscast offering a contrived explanation for the occurrence. Truman changes channels, only to pick up a radio signal broadcasting stage instructions to the Seahaven crew. Realizing that something very strange is going on, Truman begins to examine his world, and the game is afoot.
Director Peter Weir ("Gallipoli," "The Year of Living Dangerously" "Witness") has created a whale of a good movie, a rich, entertaining, thoughtful work that is at once lyrical and ominous. Wisely, he lets the audience in on the premise from the beginning, through a faux documentary about the phenomenal success of "The Truman Show," including footage of giddy fans hooked on the program. We meet the show's creator, a quietly intimidating "visionary" named Christof, played by the wonderful Ed Harris, who gives a masterful, Oscar-worthy performance as the brooding artist. Christof, who fancies himself as Truman's ersatz father figure, defends the purity and integrity of his creation, even when challenged during a call-in program by a young woman who lost her job as an extra in the show when she made direct contact with Truman and tried to tell him the truth about his "reality." In addition to providing entertainment for millions, Christof patiently explains, he's actually doing Truman a service by giving him a world much more desirable than the real one.
Indeed, Peter Weir made some interesting choices in creating Truman's un- real world. He crafts a highly stylized environment in Seahaven, a disquieting cross between the Village from the classic TV series "The Prisoner" and Mayfield, the Cleaver's hometown in "Leave It To Beaver." Squeaky clean and homogenized, Seahaven feels like the setting for an old sit-com, and the actors amplify the mood, smiling too broadly as they exchange banalities and awkwardly insert product placements into Truman's life. In the center of the surrealism, Carrey initially plays his role much like the Darren Stevens character from the old "Bewitched" series. His expressions and gestures are almost cartoonish, understandable when you look at the context in which Truman was raised. As Truman gradually becomes aware that his life is a facade, Carrey's acting turns more and more realistic, intensifying the nightmarish journey of a man trying to escape from a Stepford world.
Beyond its immense value as pure entertainment, "The Truman Show" is a subversive piece of work, genially assaulting the jaded, voyeuristic culture of the 90's. Weir offers a society where the most popular show in existence is an endless peepshow focused on the utterly mundane life of an insurance agent. He suggests our world has become so ugly that millions would take comfort in imagined intimacy with a familiar character in pleasant surroundings, even if their hero is a virtual prisoner and the utopia is phony and bland. It would be easy to dismiss the film as just a well-done paranoid fantasy, were it not for the enduring popularity of "The Real World," "Cops" and "The Jerry Springer Show." The sad truth is that "The Truman Show" is already running and we're watching it every day.
© 1998, Ed Johnson-Ott
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
