# Truman Show, The (1998)

### reviewed by
Jerr Saravia

The notion that television is corrupt and that it corrupts minds is as old as the invention of television itself. There have been a plethora of films concentrating on this technological theme from the classic "Network" to the recent successor "Wag the Dog." Both films are indictments against the idea that television is the medium containing the message. "The Truman Show" is a startlingly original, comically engaging portrait of a world where the medium is not only the message, but it encapsulates an entire town.

Rubber-faced clown Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman who has a beautiful, almost too beaming wife (Laura Linney) whom he says good-bye to before leaving for work. Every morning, Truman is greeted by his neighbors and the townspeople to whom he responds with the catch phrase "Good morning. Good evening, and good night." This Connecticut-style town where Truman lives is Seahaven, a polished, "Father Knows Best" community completely and yet not so completely removed from reality. It is reminiscent of a huge shopping mall where there's no traffic, no noise, and no problems - everything is picture perfect. Before you can whisper "The Stepford Wives," we gradually discover (before Truman does) that nothing is what it seems. Apparently, Truman is the unknowing star of a 24-hour television program where he is the main attraction (and has been since birth), and his home in Seahaven is actually a giant, dome-like television studio! To make matters worse, he is the star of the biggest hit on television.

The film's idea is like something out of "The Twilight Zone," but writer Andrew Niccol fleshes out this story with care and humanity, as in a Ray Bradbury novel. What could have been a one-joke premise becomes a deep, philosophical, unusually poignant film. The humanity emanates from Jim Carrey's uncanny Everyman character affected by the very people in his life - his mother who reminds him of an ersatz Mount Rushmore vacation, his wife who may or may not be a nurse and always wears a red sweater, his best friend (Noah Emmerich) who brings a six-pack along every time Truman has a problem, a former girlfriend (Natasha McElhone) hauled away by her father never to be seen again, and the general townsfolk who try to put him in front of advertisements hung in the town square. Truman's whole life is a fabrication - a lie for the sake of entertaining millions of viewers on television, and the TV cameras are at every corner of Truman's existence documenting his daily life.

Jim Carrey is in super tip-top form here playing the bewildered Truman with admirable restraint and complete assuredness. Don't expect fart jokes or scatological humor of the "Ace Ventura" kind here; this is Carrey's first dramatic role and he does wonders with it. At every turn, he suggests and implies Truman's innocence, even when Truman starts to get suspicious about his surroundings. It is a role Charlie Chaplin could have played with the same degree of panache and heartbreak. My favorite scene is when Truman has an argument with his wife and notices that she is addressing someone other than himself when she utters:

            'How about trying some delicious Mocha Hot Chocolate?'

            Truman's response: 'What the hell are you talking about?'

And before I forget, there's the crucial role played by Ed Harris, who excels like no other actor from movie to movie, and here he is at his unqualified best as Cristof, the God-like creator of the show who barks orders such as "Cue the sun!" or "Bring out the rain! Make the thunder louder!" Harris's final moments where he discloses Truman's life, from his birth to his childhood memories, is deeply touching and as emotionally discreet as this actor has ever been on screen.

"The Truman Show" is directed by Peter Weir ("The Last Wave," "Dead Poet's Society") and he does a remarkably acute job of showing the world Truman occupies which is not that different from what America is now becoming - a Rockwellian nightmare where everyone pretends to be what they aren't. If Truman is not real in his own eyes because of the part he unknowingly plays on television, then who is he?

For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/

E-mail me with questions, concerns or complaints at Faust667@aol.com or at jerry@movieluver.com

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