The Truman Show
What kills me is that the advertising for The Truman Show has repeatedly and determinedly given away the entire premise of the movie, not to mention the endless reviews which have done the same. Just in case you're the last person in America who doesn't know what the theme of the film is, here's my unspoiled review: Brilliant. Ask no questions - ditch your petty responsibilities and see it tonight.
Now on to the details.
Truman Burbank, as you likely know, is the unwitting star of a wildly popular television show. As the first person ever to be adopted by a corporation, he has grown up on the 24-hour show that bears his name. His wife, friends and colleagues are all actors, and the town he lives in is enclosed within an incomprehensibly large dome from which he has never left. Why? A plotted boating accident left him terrified of water, and his town is on an island. Bombarded by propaganda that keeps him there (local papers proclaim the town as "voted the best place to live on Earth") he goes about his day, his every move broadcast to the world.
Sounds farfetched - or does it? Ever seen MTV's "The Real World"? What about the recent proliferation of Web Cams in people's homes, inviting others to peek into their private lives? There is something inherently fascinating about glimpsing the lives of real people, but difference is that the examples I mentioned feature people who know they're being watched. Truman's town has more than 5,000 cameras hidden in it to track him wherever he roams, and he lives in naïve bliss, though he becomes unsettled by the nagging feeling that there's more to life to this.
The reason I'm pissed at the advertising for the film is that it gives away (but can't quite ruin) the slow, elegant build-up as Truman first begins to suspect that something odd is happening to him. He just has no idea of the scope of it, and the whole truth isn't even revealed to the audience until halfway through the film. This is a notoriously difficult concept to pull off without slipping into improbably fantasy or thinking that Truman is just plain dumb. Credit director Peter Weir (of Dead Poets' Society and Witness) for achieving that balance, and Carrey for playing Truman as a genuinely likeable man who slips into desperate paranoia as he edges closer to the truth.
Carrey's performance is a revelation, a feeling and courageous reading. Don't look for the inspired lunacy of his previous work; this is a moving performance, one I dare say will find him in Oscar running, or at least given more substantial projects in the future. More than a drama though, The Truman Show is a dark, dark, subversive comedy with a screenplay that crackles with intelligence and is packed with gorgeous, surreal visuals. I was hooked from the beginning, and the film's relentless build had me mesmerized the entire time.
The details are rich and devastatingly clever - note the way Truman's friends push him against corporate billboards, hold up products and promote them in commercial-speak (essential for a 24-hour show with no commercials). He sees nothing odd in all this, and why should he? It's all he's ever known, just as the setting sun next to a huge moon doesn't faze him. "People accept the reality they're presented with," says the show's producer; that's the moral nugget of the film.
But the ramifications are what make the film so fascinating, and credible. Note the way Truman's global audience discusses his life as if it were a soap opera, or fear for him when he nearly drowns. It doesn't occur to them that they're the reason his life is in jeopardy in the first place, just as the actors and director of the show have justified their cold manipulation of Truman in the quest for ratings.
This film is entertaining on the surface, but has a powerfully sharp and biting core, attacking the American cult of celebrity, amoral media and even pondering the nature of reality. It makes you think hard and feel deeply, the highest compliments I can pay. I walked out wanting to stare at the sky for a while, and the film stayed with me for hours. I say again - a brilliant film, the best I've seen all year, and the best I will likely see for a while. See it soon.
- Jared O'Connor
MOVIES
All Content © 1997, 1998, 1999 Jared O'Connor and Michael Baker