The Truman Show Review
by Brian Omura (axalon AT iti2 DOT net)June 28th, 1998
The Truman Show
1998 Dir: Peter Weir
7/10
I went into this movie with a lot of expectations. While I'm not a huge fan of Jim Carrey, the premise sounded extremely fascinating, and the word of mouth had been glowing. Sadly, while the Truman Show is 'pretty good', it never quite becomes the masterpiece that it was meant to be. For those of you tuning in late, the film stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man whose entire life is really a television show. His wife, his friends, etc. are all actors. His town is a set. So on, so on. Eventually he begins to discover what's going on.
The problem of the film lies mostly in its tone. While for the most part it is a somewhat serious film, constant bits of humor are thrown in. Sometimes this helps the film, as when we laugh at Truman's life. But other times, such as when we see the reactions of a viewer to Truman's stormy sea voyage, it destroys any tension. This movie doesn't quite know what it wants to be.
The ending truly underscores this fact. While it would be a marvelous ending for a satire about our society and our obsession with television, which this movie does court becoming, it doesn't fit the film we have seen, which is really about Truman. The Truman Show could have been a brilliant satire about society, or it could have been a moving character study/Twilight Zone episode. Instead, by not choosing a direction, it becomes neither and finally settles on pleasant mediocrity.
Brian Omura
www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/8334
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.
