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.
(c) 1998 Berge Garabedian
Movie Reviews by Berge Garabedian