# Truman Show, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Berge Garabedian

    THE TRUMAN SHOW
    RATING:  6.5 / 10 --> So-so

    Review Date:         June 17, 1998
    Director:                Peter Weir
    Writer:                 Andrew Niccol
    Producers:         Edward S. Feldman, Andrew Niccol,
                    Scott Rudin, Adam Schroeder
    Actors:                 Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank
                    Ed Harris as Christof
    Genre:                 Dramedy
    Year of Release:         1998

Director Peter Weir takes another "better-known as a comedian" actor (Carrey) and parades him around in a tale of drama, comedy and fantasy. His previous subject for this matter had been Robin Williams in his critically acclaimed DEAD POETS SOCIETY back in 1989.

PLOT: Truman Burbank is a man whose entire life is being taped for television viewing purposes. A TV show, aptly named The Truman Show, has broadcast his life 24 hours a day since his birth. Everybody in his life are actors: his wife, his best friend, his neighbours, his co-workers. Everybody is in on it, except for Truman. Then one day, he begins to radiate some suspicions...

CRITIQUE: Extremely original, well-written piece that ultimately left me emotionally detached, and feeling bored at certain times. This movie is written impeccably by the same writer of GATTACA (6/10), and covers most of its bases extremely well in regards to the who, what, where, when and hows that you may find yourself asking over its 100-minute playtime. Having said that, many of its dramatic sequences did very little to move me, and left me wondering if I should be caring more about Truman than I ultimately did.

Some scenes were quite funny, others original...but all in all, the film was basically nothing more than just a few creative ideas plugged into a well-fabricated fantastical environment. Nothing blew me away here, folks! Carrey was decent in his role, but I thought his character was exaggerated at times (Does anyone really greet their neighbours the way he did in real life?? Gimme a break.) Ed Harris was good, but his range didn't go much further than standing around acting cool and arrogant. The rest of the cast were also satisfactory, but no real standouts. Interesting, but nothing more than that.

Overall, this film should fluffily entertain and delight most people in regards to its original structure, style and plot line, but personally, I found nothing "deeper" in it than that. No real reason to go see it at the movie shoppes though. I suggest you wait until its video launch six months from now. "Movie of the decade" ??? I think not. Let's all remember that GOODFELLAS (9/10) was actually released in 1990, people :)

Little Known Facts: Jim Carrey's full name is James Eugene Carrey. He was born in Ontario, Canada, and at the tender age of 10, Carrey had sent his resume to Carol Burnett. At one point, his family lived out of their car/trailer, and at the age of 19, Carrey finally moved to Los Angeles. Before his acting career took off, Jim Carrey once wrote a "fake check" out to himself worth $10million for "acting services rendered". When his father passed away, he placed the check inside his father's casket. He always believed that his fantasy would become reality. Nowadays, Carrey pockets a minimum of $20million per flick. Director Peter Weir was born in Sydney, Australia. Actor Ed Harris stands 5"9, was born in New Jersey, and educated at Columbia University. He has been married to actress Amy Madigan since 1982.

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    (c) 1998 Berge Garabedian

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