THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2004
In late 1990s it was difficult to imagine Hollywood "high concept"
comedy actually trying to make audience think. It was even harder to
imagine such film seriously dealing with some important social,
ethical and philosophical issues while being critical towards modern
entertainment industry at the same time. To expect such film to be
released as summer blockbuster and make nice business at the box
office was exercise in ungrounded optimism. Yet, THE TRUMAN
SHOW, 1998 comedy directed by Peter Weir, managed to do all that.
The script for film was written by Andrew Niccol, author of lauded
science fiction drama GATTACA. Its protagonist is Truman Burbank
(played by Jim Carey), small insurance company official living in
Seahaven, picturesque island community. Truman spent his entire
life there, being afflicted with irrational fear of water following
childhood trauma. At the surface, Truman's life seems to be very
good - he has nice job, house, wife Meryl (played by Laura Linney)
and best friend Marlon (played by Noah Emmerich). There is
something missing from Truman's life - Sylvia (played by Natascha
McElhone), girl who mysteriously disappeared from the island after
telling him about his every move being followed. Gradually, strange
things start to happen in Seaheven - reflectors are falling from sky,
radio catches some strange messages and town's inhabitants begin to
behave strangely. The answer to all questions lies in the true nature
of Truman's world - it is nothing more than giant set for the world's
longest-running and most spectacular television soap opera. As a
child, Truman was adopted by corporation and his entire life was
recorded by thousands of cameras 24 hours a day, while all the
people he knows are professional actors. When Truman starts
doubting about the truthfulness of the people and world that
surround him, show's omnipotent God-like director Christof (played
by Ed Harris) must take some drastic measures to protect the show.
Unlike most Hollywood films, THE TRUMAN SHOW increased its
social relevancy with time. In 1998 most of the critics and
commentators saw Niccol's script as a satire directed towards
voyeuristic and intrusive nature of modern media. On the other
hand, there were some critics ridiculing the film's concept of the
world's most popular TV show being made simply by recording
someone's everyday life. Only few years after the film's premiere
came BIG BROTHER and multitudes of immensely popular reality
show based on that very concept. Yet, all those shows are still based
on some sort of manipulation and distortion of reality, just like the
world of Truman Burbank is artificial reality. Andrew Niccol's script
intelligently avoids taking a simplistic critical one-sided stand against
such manipulation. Peter Weir laces plot with quasi-documentary
footage about production of the show and through the words of
Christof presents arguments of the other side - Truman might have
his privacy and freedom taken away, but his life is spared of painful
uncertainties that might await him in the real world; his existence,
despite all of its artificiality, gives happiness and comfort to the
billions of people around the world.
Taken simply as a film, THE TRUMAN SHOW presents its director
Peter Weir at his best. The artificial world of Seahaven is created with
great care and is full of many tiny details that are impressive even
when they don't serve much of dramatic purpose. Music score,
written by various artists, including legendary Philip Glass, is very
impressive and contributes to the surreal yet frighteningly normal
atmosphere of the film. Jim Carey in this role finally shows that he is
real actor, and not simply a comedian. Supporting cast is also
wonderful - Laura Linney is impressive in her role of perfect and
artificial wife, while Noah Emmerich is excellent as Truman's
fictional best friend. His performance is best in the one of film's most
powerful scenes - conversation with Truman which compresses all
the tragic, drama and comedy of the film's premise.
THE TRUMAN SHOW is intelligent, brave and entertaining film, but
it is still far from perfection. Some casting decisions weren't very
fortunate - Carey and McElhone lack chemistry and it isn't easy to
understand why Truman was so obsessed with McElhone's character.
The outside world isn't portrayed very well and the film's ending,
which could have been much darker, leaves much to be desired. The
entire film could have worked much better with audience slowly
discovering the truth through Truman's perspective. On the other
hand, even with such flaws and so many missed opportunities, THE
TRUMAN SHOW is little miracle of 1990s Hollywood that deserves
more praise and more audience today than it had few years ago.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
Review written on April 10th 2004
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society
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