EDTV (1999)
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2005
We live in really interesting times. What only few years ago
looked like the plot worthy of futuristic satire is now prosaic
reality. And, to make things even more interesting, some
aspects of today's prosaic reality were indeed subject of
Hollywood movies which now look prophetic. Being prophetic
and being good, however, are two different things, which could
be seen in EDTV, 1999 comedy directed by Ron Howard.
The plot of the film begins with True TV, cable station which is
in deep financial trouble and whose director Whitaker (played
by Rob Reiner) will accept any idea in order to push ratings
back up. One such idea comes from scruples producer Cynthia
Tapping (played by Ellen De Generes). She proposes that a
station picks an ordinary man and sets up camera team that
would record his every move for 24 hours a day and 7 days a
week. Whitaker agrees and Ed Pekurny (played by Matthew
McConaguhey), humble but charming video store clerk from
Texas, is picked among many candidates. At first, the show is
utterly boring, but everything changes when Ed visits his
brother Ray (played by Woody Harelson) and wins heart of
Ray's girlfriend Shari (played by Jenna Elfman). The show
suddenly becomes big hit and Ed turns into media superstar.
Yet, after a while, constant presence of cameras and lack of
privacy causes the break of his relationship with Shari. Ed
wants to end the show, but the greedy studio executives aren't
willing to give up their cash cow.
When it premiered, EDTV was compared with THE TRUMAN
SHOW, another film trying to explore what insatiable appetite
of voyeuristic public combined with modern technology could
do to individual's privacy and dignity. The comparisons were
usually in favour of THE TRUMAN SHOW - that film had
much more intelligent and original script, better basic idea and
plenty of room to mix some serious philosophy with comedy.
EDTV, based on 1994 Canadian film LOUIS 19, LE ROI DES
ONDES, has somewhat simpler concept - person who, unlike
protagonist of THE TRUMAN SHOW, knows that he is being
subject of reality show - but it nevertheless had plenty of
satirical potential.
Unfortunately, scriptwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel
weren't exactly sure whether they are making satire or nothing
more than simple "high concept" romantic comedy. EDTV is
best in the very beginning, when protagonist still haven't met
his love interest and the film looks like it could be the former.
When love interest appears, movie quickly starts to deteriorate
despite all the charm and talent of Jenna Elfman. The ending is
especially disappointing when one of characters suddenly gets
a unexplainable change of heart and provides unsatisfying and
unconvincing deus ex machine plot resolution. Fact that most
jokes in the film aren't particularly funny doesn't help either
and only the talented and diverse cast - with many respectable
actors in small roles - prevents EDTV from becoming complete
failure.
But the worst problem for EDTV is in its satirical content
becoming obsolete due to real life. Only few months after this
film's premiere Dutch TV station aired very first instalment of
BIG BROTHER, reality show combining concepts of THE
TRUMAN SHOW and EDTV. This was followed by flood of
diverse reality shows that forever changed not only television,
but the entire concepts of entertainment industry and media in
today's world. And it turned out that the creators of those
shows were more imaginative than their fictional counterparts
in EDTV.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Review written on March 31st 2005
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com
Film Reviews in Croatian/Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom
http://draxreview.blogspot.com
Draxblog Movie Reviews
http://www.ofcs.org
Online Film Critics Society
========== X-RAMR-ID: 39636 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1373694 X-RT-TitleID: 1087667 X-RT-SourceID: 1650 X-RT-AuthorID: 1307 X-RT-RatingText: 4/10
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