The Truman Show (Wide Screen) > Reviews > Witless witty

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Carrey
Disadvantages:	Bland

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The world of Truman Burbank is endlessly, ultimately, eternally perfect in every respect - blissfully perfect without a single thing to mar it. And yet somehow he yearns for something more, something else to experience outside of the tedious, unchanging, perfect symmetry. Truman Burbank is Mr Perfect, everybody's friend, Mr Nice.

The Prisoner, featuring Patrick McGoohan, some thirty years ago now, was similarly surreal and unchangingly bland and the "I am not a number" scream could just as easily come from the lips of Truman as McGoohan. For Truman's life is just as unreal, manufactured and controlled.

There is also a grim, dark secret, for the life of Truman Burbank is a fiction, a make believe world, designed to entertain the masses, while exploiting the man at the eye of the storm. Truman Burbank is an unknowing, uninformed dupe, the main character in a real life soap which has gripped the citizens of the USA for more than 10,000 days, as the everyday doings of a modern day Clark Kent without the tights allows us to live out the antics of a Mr Ordinary Joe.

The Truman Show is a sharply focused satire on modern day America and the advent of the DocuDrama. It's sharply observed and expertly realised with Jim Carrey finally doing more than just playing it for the easy gross out fart joke. This is adult moviedom writ large with Carrey playing it for real for once.

This is a great film, wonderfully challenging and yet strangely contrived.

The life of Truman is one huge lie. Since he was born he has been observed and scrutinised by the whole world, a manipulated, closely managed puppet, steered and driven by the Machiavelli behind the scenes who exploits his naivete and innocence for the amusement of the chattering classes. What Truman mistakenly believes to be his life is actually a daily soap opera, a Fifties rooted journal of his doings and misadventures, no highs and fewer lows, a mundane, unchanging bland nothingness which he rarely questions or kicks against.

In many ways the film apes its bland subject matter and is just too nice - they could have gone for a more spiteful poke in the eye of modern day America, but I guess that would have been far, far too easy. It was much more challenging to stick to the knitting and go for the great understatement, the muted whimper of Carrey fighting against his servitude and finally questioning the unquestionable.

Strangely, but like many of the truly great films, like The Deer Hunter, Midnight Express and The Elephant Man, for a lot of the time The Truman Show is unwatchable and not very enjoyable, but it is challenging and mind expanding and thoughtful. I hate it/love it/despise it/adore it. It's almost impossible to write about and yet just as difficult to ignore.

It's strange to think that Carrey could do something as intelligent and subtle as this when he is far more usually associated with in yer face monstrosity as Ace Ventura, The Mask, The Riddler, Liar Liar and Me Myself and Irene. He shows much more sympathy and feeling in the hour and a half of The Truman Show than an entire series of the Pet Detective or Edward Nigma. If only he could be as good as this regularly he could be one of the true greats instead of a modern day Buster Keaton with a loudspeaker. Almost as big a pity as the entire life of Truman Burbank.