The Truman Show

So I finally saw The Truman Show. It took me long enough, but here it is.

The movie started late (the previews didn’t start until 10 minutes after the start time–the latest I’ve ever seen), but I had good company, so it didn’t matter much. I saw a preview for Snake Eyes, the new Brian De Palma, Nic Cage, Gary Sinese movie. If you want to see the movie avoid the trailer. I have a feeling that it gives away the whole thing. I just had to get that off my chest. Now, on with the movie.

I’ve always liked Peter Weir. I haven’t seen all of his films, but I also haven’t seen a bad one, yet. His last film with a man known as a comic performer earned that performer an Oscar nomination. You remember it. It was a little movie called Dead Poets’ Society and the guy was a little known actor named Robin Williams. He also did Witness, The Mosquito Coast, Fearless, Gallipoli and The Year Of Living Dangerously. We’ll forget about Green Card, but most have.

Now, he’s done it again. He’s taken a comic actor (Jim Carrey) and given him a real dramatic role. It’s the story of a man who’s life has been contrived since birth. He doesn’t realize that he is living in a dome where every person, every weather condition, every emotion is brought to him by a producer with a God complex. His name, appropriately enough, is Christof. He’s played to perfection by Ed Harris. This guy has to win an Oscar soon. The only thing that Christof couldn’t create was Truman. He never realized how Truman could find out what was really going on.

Truman is married to Meryl (Laura Linney from Primal Fear and Absolute Power) who really doesn’t seem to care about anything but product placement. This is done to hilarious effect by quite a few people. Meryl does whole commercials for hot chocolate. Truman’s best friend, Marlon (Noah Emmerich from Beautiful Girls and Copland) says things like “Now that’s a beer!” These two twins push Truman up against a billboard everyday so that he’s in the shot with it.

Then there’s the girl who got away, Sylvia (Natascha McElhone from The Devil’s Own and looking a lot like a cross between Meryl Streep and Jane Seymour). She came a little too close to telling Truman the truth and became more than an extra. Now she’s on the outside spearheading the “Let him out” groups.

I really liked this movie. It was heartfelt drama and social commentary all in one. What would we do if this really happened? How would the world react? Would we let it go on forever? Or would we cry out to set him free? The scenes with the viewers were written much the way I could see it really happening. They wanted it to go on forever, but they also wanted him to escape. They just didn’t know the means to the end. I found myself feeling the same way. I wanted Truman out of his fake life, but I wanted the movie to last longer than its hour and a half running time. I kept thinking, “No! He can’t find out yet! It has to last longer!”

Christof’s world seems as contrived as Truman’s. The end credits were even sectioned off into “Truman’s World,” “Christof’s World” and “The Viewers.” There was no “Real World.” Anyway, Christof lived in the walls of the dome. He never ventured out. He surrounded himself with mainly yes-men (except for Philip Baker Hall–the gangster from Hard Eight and the librarian from “Seinfeld”) and guarded his privacy with an iron fist.

I also really liked the way we never really knew what was real or planned. There are scenes that start out sounding like they were supposed to be driven by real emotions. Then we find out that the person is being fed lines by Christof. This makes us realize that nothing is predictable in a supposedly predictable world.

The only problem I had with the movie is, strangely enough, the same problem I had with St. Elmo’s Fire, of all movies. Everything fell apart at once. Within about a month Truman sees four or five “seams” in the dome. Why did these seams just show up after thirty years of perfection? They sort of explain this when Christof says something like, “We accept the world we live as truth, no matter what.”

There are a lot of people who think that Jim Carrey should get an Oscar for his role. He shows great versatility that no one really knew he had. There were only a few shots that looked like typical Jim Carrey schtick and we didn’t see any talking butts (although there was a close up of it, but we saw that in the trailer). He really did put in a great performance. I won’t say if I think he deserves an Oscar or not because I’m not sure myself. He was awesome, though.

One cool in joke is that all of the characters in Truman’s life are named after famous actors. Meryl (Streep), Marlon (Brando), Vivian (Leigh), Kirk (Douglas), Lawrence (Olivier) and Spencer (Tracy). There’s a Sylvia, too, but I can’t think of the actress that goes with that one. There’s also the fact that the opening credits are done as if we were watching the actual show. Truman Burbank is credited as playing himself and it’s directed and created by Christof. I love finding things like that in movies. When my movies come out, look for them. They’ll be there.

So far, this is the best movie of the summer. Then again, it’s not hard to beat Godzilla. Deep Impact is a little harder to beat, but not a whole lot. But this was even better than Bulworth. A better ending, too, if still vague.

Don’t watch this if you’re wanting more Jim Carrey stuff. He doesn’t give that. He also doesn’t sing the “Trumania National Anthem.” The scene is in the movie, but it stops just before he starts singing.

Great poster, though.