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THE TRUMAN SHOW Send This Review to a Friend
After an avalanche of hype THE TRUMAN SHOW emerges as a disappointment. The concept undoubtedly looked good on paper: A man whose entire life is a fraud because, unbeknownst to him, since birth he has grown up in the environment of a television show watched by millions world-wide. The premise is different and contains the seeds of satire that ribs the way in which television exploits our lives and pinpoints how so much in our society is phony.
Having an idea and sustaining it is another matter. Although the casting of Jim Carrey to play the hapless hero couldn't be much better and director Peter Weir has fashioned a good-looking film abetted by a well-designed sci-fi environment, once the basic situation is established, the rest needs far more impact and wit than we get. It's a sad state of affairs that this one-joke concept can be palmed off as something very deep. Perhaps it is deep by Hollywood standards.
In the script by Andrew Niccol the life of Truman Burbank is one big soap opera. The plot has to evolve to the point where Truman begins to realize he's been had. But any soap opera on the networks has more action and entertaining complications to hold an audience than you'll find in "The Truman Show." Most of what happens is bland and sophomoric. The characters are uninteresting, including Truman. The film works to some extent as a novelty with a point. But it pales beside the satirical "Network," a dynamic, intelligent zinger of a movie that really skewered television and society--and that was way back in 1976. A Paramount Pictures release.
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