The Truman Show (1998) directed by Peter Weir
Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) lives in the idyllic seaside community Seahaven. He's lived there all his life, has a devoted wife Meryl (Laura Linney) and a best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich). He's an insurance salesman. All his life he's dreamed of exploring the larger world. He's been kept from that dream because he is the main character in a 24-hour television show that started with his birth, "The Truman Show." Seahaven is an artificial community under a dome (a structure so large it can be see from outer space) with cameras and actors imbedded everywhere, including Meryl and Marlon. The whole thing is orchestrated by Christof (Ed Harris), the producer of the show who keeps things running smoothly and dramatically. This movie picks up where Truman discovers that there is something wrong about the world around him. His path of self discovery is thwarted by the cast and crew but cheered on by the viewers of the show, including Lauren (Natascha McElhone), a former cast member and bit player who fell in love with Truman and tried to get him to escape in his college days (yes, the town has a college).
The movie is anchored by a great cast. Carrey gives a very good performance with only occasional outbursts of his over-the-top style in moments when Truman is under great stress or trying to provoke a reaction. Ed Harris is cool and collected and manipulative as Christof, the would-be God of Truman's world. He has moments of being a father-figure to Truman but his true interest is recreating the world as "Truman's world." Christof even describes himself as the "creator" and plans out all the drama in Truman's life, including his love interests and his family life.
The story is a fascinating commentary on reality TV, extensive surveillance, and media manipulation. People on reality TV are treated as entertainment even though viewers are meant to identify and befriend the characters they see. It's a way to spike ratings and keep people on the same channel. Even with his whole life on display, Truman has an inner self and a free will that is challenged by the discovery that his world is an artificial construct, even if it is built specifically for him. But it is not really for him, it's for Christof and for ratings and for product placement. Truman has no genuine human relationships in Seahaven. Anything close to that is taken away or immediately taken up by Christof to mold into the larger drama. It's both frightening and heartbreaking.
Even almost thirty years after its release, the movie has something to say about human life, truth, and genuineness that resonates with viewers. I had a professor who said that universal problems are always contemporary. Dealing with those problems, finding ways to overcome them, is a challenge that we all face--"we all" covering different times as well as different locations.
Highly recommended.
The movie was reviewed and commented on in A Good Story is Hard to Find Episode 367. Check it out!
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