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It's been called the next 'Forrest Gump.' That's unfair. Jim Carrey's latest is much, much better.
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It's not the best film of the decade (and besides, we've got a good 18 months left), and any science fiction fan will tell you the story isn't all that original. But 'The Truman Show' is undeniably a must-see picture... especially up against the mountain of crap Hollywood's unleashed thus far.
If you've seen the trailers, you know the plot. Truman Burbank (Carrey), born a throw-away baby, grows up to be the world's biggest television star. Only he doesn't know it.
It's 'Real TV' taken to the extreme. Truman's house, home town, even the sun, moon and stars he sees every day are a fabrication, all part of the world's biggest set (and nearly the world's biggest anything). Seahaven is horribly perfect, a Norman Rockwell painting gone mad. Everyone -- from his wife Meryl (Laura Linney) to the smiling bus driver -- is an actor. And this massive universe is controlled from a NASA-esque control center by 'The Creator,' Christof (Ed Harris).
Truman's whole life has been meticulously scripted, every day postcard perfect and every night capped off lounging around with best-friend drinking buddy Marlon (Noah Emmerich) and an everpresent six-pack of beer.
But deep inside the responsible, domestic Truman beats the heart of an explorer. He wants to get out of Seahaven, convinced there's something Out There.
Christof, of course, does everything he can to keep Truman grounded. But when Truman begins to sense something amiss, his resolve to leave grows stronger and stronger and the Creator's influence becomes less and less subtle. Truman breaks violently from his daily routine, leaving Christof and his cast of thousands scrambling to cover the seams in this artificial town.
Will Truman uncover the truth? And if he does, what will he do? As he battles against the only reality he's known, his global audience is riveted to the screen. How will it end?
The movie's irresistable draw -- besides seeing Carrey not talk out of his butt -- is watching everything unravel into a nightmare of Hollywood logistics. But under it all flows an eerie current of philosophy.
Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, Witness) wisely spares us a heavy hand in pointing out the big ethical questions, instead weaving them into the fierce activism of Lauren (Natascha McElhone), a member of an otherwise unseen Truman Liberation Front who -- infiltrating the set during Truman's college years -- planted the first seeds of paranoia in Truman's head.
What makes this film great rather than simply good is the hypnotizing totality of the Seahaven universe. Even though we are shown more and more of Christof's smoke and mirrors as the story unfolds, we find ourselves, paradoxically, drawn further in to his production.
When Marlon delivers a best-friend speech straight out of a Hallmark card, we -- just like Truman's fans watching on TV -- are no less prone to real tears. It's a double-take of perception. Are we really that vulnerable to a contrived moment of moody lighting and stirring music?
And if what Christof was doing was wrong, what does that make the millions of viewers who ate it all up? Why didn't they hear Lauren's cry and do something?
'The Truman Show' works on several levels. It's practically worth a second trip to the theater to absorb it all.
Carrey is perfect as Truman. Not only does he reveal a stubbornly-repressed ability to actually act, but his almost cartoonish aura -- beaten into the ground in his previous slapstic roles -- adds just the right touch of otherness to Truman's character.
Linney (Congo, Primal Fear) does wonders with her character, going from plastic to passionate in a blink. Emmerich (Beautiful Girls, Copland), McElhone (The Devil's Own) and Harris (Apollo 13, The Rock) also put in first-rate performances.
NYPD Blue protege Una Damon (Gattaca, Deep Impact) also plays a role, but sadly it's once again merely Asian-as-executive-accessory rather than anything substantive.
The film could probably have done without Peter Glass' unique brand of anasthetic orchestration, but who knows? Perhaps underwhelming vapidity was exactly what they were looking for.
Also, a recent article in Newsweek revealed the film's ending was one of several possible conclusions. One had Truman make the exact opposite decision than the one we see him make. In this reviewer's humble opinion, that ending would have made 'The Truman Show' a true thinker's film.
But these complaints are merely desperate nitpicking. 'The Truman Show' appeals to the paranoia in all of us, and uses it to bend our brains a little. See it.
You can read this review and other reviews on the same topic at Epinions.Com. Check out my Epinions.com profile page for my other reviews and more details.
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