The Truman Show Review
by Chad Polenz (ChadPolenz AT aol DOT com)June 11th, 1998
The Truman Show
Chad'z rating: **1/2 (out of 4 = okay/average)
1998, PG, 104 minutes [1 hour, 44 minutes]
[satire]
starring: Jim Carrey (Truman Burbank), Ed Harris (Christof), Laura Linney (Meryl), Noah Emmerich (Marlon); written by Andrew Niccol; produced by Edward S. Feldman, Andrew Niccol, Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder; directed by Peter Weir.
Seen June 5, 1998 at 9:30 p.m. at Rotterdam Square Mall Cinemas (Rotterdam, NY), theater #2, with Casey Rivers for free using my Sony/Loews critic's pass. [Theater rating: ***: very good sound and picture, average seats]
All genres of storytelling must establish and define the reality in which their stories take place. This challenge is even more difficult and thus more crucial to satire, where in the "comedy" lies mostly in style and theme. It is these basic principles upon which "The Truman Show" is based - the story of a reality within a reality, but neither are defined well enough to create for theme or substance. It's certainly clever, but not executed as such.
Entertainment in the 1990s has become more and more polarized. The big-budget movies and TV shows have continued to inflate in all aspects. More emphasis is placed on style over substance - who needs acting and writing when you've got special effects? Some efforts have been made to counter this inflation, most notably a rapid increase in independently-produced comedy and drama which claim to be driven by minutia of some sort, but with some exceptions, have exploited their "hooks" the same way the blockbusters exploit their budget.
Perhaps this film serves as some kind of ultimate alternative to the major forms of entertainment. It presents us with an antithesis of fiction - reality. Truman Burbank (Carrey), has been on television every day since his birth (hence the title) and has never suspected as much. We're invited to experience everything he does since there's no way of truly knowing what could happen. He lives in a small coastal town where everyone either directly or indirectly affects him since they're all actors who have been told what to do, but must improvise what they say and how they do things.
What would it be like to watch an ordinary person? One would think it would be boring, after all, isn't that the point of entertainment - to escape reality? Jerry Seinfeld said it best, "Everyone on TV is doing something better than you. You never see people sliding off the edge of the sofa with potato chip crumbs on their face." But this film would have us believe that would be completely fascinating, or at least in its reality. Viewers are glued to their television sets afraid to miss anything, while the corporation behind the project basks in the continued success of the show. Unfortunately, it is in this aspect the film is severely flawed. Little attention is given to the kind of world which would not only condone the whole idea of the show, but be enthralled by it. The few viewers we see are of the exaggerated, cartoonish sort, which does keep with the overall attitude, but there's no authenticity to anyone's motivation. The show's creator and director, known only as Christof (Harris), seems to care about Truman, yet he never hesitates to exploit him, even to the point of killing him, just because he can.
Another major flaw is in the storytelling itself. It's obvious as soon as the film opens what the premise is (as if the massive promotion hadn't already given it away). There's no sense of mystery since Truman is clued into the truth of his reality right from the get-go, and thus the plot is all about Truman's awareness of his situation and his attempt to escape it. The story would have worked better if we were just as clueless as Truman and had to figure it out too. Instead, everything is obviously phony, but it would have been interesting to see that phoniness presented as a reality.
Truman's world is that of "Nick At Nite" combined with every commercial ever made, which creates for many comical and satirical situations such as Truman's friend Marlon (Emmerich) who's always coming by with a six-pack of beer and says things like "it doesn't get any better than this," and his wife Meryl (Linnley) who only says bubbly, encouraging things to him. Besides losing his "father" in a boating accident as a child, his life has been peachy.
It would seem only natural for themes about the mass hypnotism of television and the media to crop up, but the film doesn't take advantage of the situation. Truman is a prisoner, and this idea of imprisonment by the media is one of the film's predominant themes, but it's not as powerful as could be due to the jumbled script. There's just not enough motivation to justify the idea of "The Truman Show;" why it was created, why it is successful, why any of the cast or crew members are involved with the show, and most importantly, why the show has run smoothly for 30 years without Truman catching on.
Not to say that "The Truman Show" is without resonance. It is interesting and thought-provoking due to its premise, but premise alone isn't a bankable niche.
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(C) 1998 Chad Polenz
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