The Truman Show (1998) * * * *

Directed by:  Peter Weir

Starring:  Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Laura Linney, Holland Taylor, Natascha McElhone


The Truman Show was made back in 1998 when reality TV was still in its infancy.    MTV had The Real World, but they knew they were being filmed.   The subject of The Truman Show, Truman Burbank (Carrey), is unaware that his entire life is a television show watched by millions.    Every person in his life is an actor playing a role, from his wife Meryl (Linney) to his best friend Marlon (Emmerich).   This is deception on an unheard-of scale, with the audience as willing participants in it.  

Every day of his thirty years or so of age, Truman has lived a relatively peaceful, safe life in the town of Seahaven, which is one large, ingenious set.    He recently has developed wanderlust, though, and desires to travel outside of Seahaven for the first time.    He wants to go to Fiji, which is where a girl named Sylvia (McElhone) he fell for in high school allegedly moved.    Sylvia is a character like the rest, but she was thrown off the show because she developed an unscripted relationship with Truman.   Through a series of contrivances, his travel dreams are squashed temporarily, but the show's creator Christof (Harris) realizes that there will come a time when Truman will discover the truth of his existence.   

Since the show generates millions in merchandise sales from product placements and memorabilia, this will not sit well with Christof or the network.  They see no cruelty in their treatment of Truman.  All they see is profits and good television.  They scheme in every way to keep this massive secret from him, but his natural curiosity and intelligence keep getting in the way.  Questions nag at him, like why does Meryl decide to hold up a box of cereal and discuss it during the middle of an argument?  Or why is it there are sudden traffic jams whenever he attempts to drive out of Seahaven?   Or why do people seem not to react to anything spontaneous Truman may do?

There are other unanswered questions we have, such as how exactly is Truman and Meryl's sex life handled?    Or what does Christof do when he takes a vacation?    Do the other actors ever work on other projects?    Has any of them ever been nominated for an Emmy?   These remain left to our imaginations, but what happens in The Truman Show is handled well logistically.    The film is less about the plot than it is about the questions we must answer as viewers.  

The story of Truman's existence is answered in an interview with Christof, who ironically guards his privacy jealously.    We learn Truman was the first (and only baby we hope) ever adopted by a corporation.    He grows up with a mother who isn't his real mother, a father who abandoned him (otherwise known as written off the show), and a wife and best friend who are not real either.     The only person who truly seems to care for Truman is Sylvia, who realized a long time ago how wrong it was to keep Truman in the dark and yearns for him to break free from his TV life to start a real one. 

Jim Carrey drops his obnoxious, high-wattage comic persona to create a down-to-earth, simple person whom we grow to care about and root for him to figure things out.     When Jim Carrey is not playing "Jim Carrey", he is an effective performer.    This was the first film to show he didn't have to play Ace Ventura for the rest of his career.     Ed Harris (Oscar-nominated for his role as Christof), is able to coldly justify to himself and the world that Truman is serving the greater good as an unwitting participant in the show.     He can not afford to have a conscience, not that he seems to have much of one.     Linney's Meryl has the most difficult role on the show and she is a trooper, but how heartless does she have to be to play such a role given what is required of it?

The Truman Show is a moving indictment of a culture that will gleefully watch real people put themselves on display for our amusement.     Who is more to blame?    The viewers or the people who decide for a few bucks that they should forgo their privacy and humanity for the sake of fifteen minutes of fame.   If you consider how the TV landscape has shifted from episodic programs to reality-based ones, you will see there are more reality show fans out there than ever before.     

Like Network (1976), The Truman Show created a satirical extreme that years later seemed more like prophecy than satire.    Did Andrew Niccol, the writer of this film, see television going in its current direction?    The screenplay is perceptive and poses questions the viewer must reflect on honestly.    It does not turn into a film with a great concept and goes nowhere with it.    It not only grabs you, but it forces reflection and thought.     I love movies where there are no easy answers.    Andy Warhol once said, "Everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes."    It was seen as a prediction, but it was actually a lament.     If he lived to see that his lament is closer to the truth than he realized, I wonder how he would have reacted.