Three years ago, I wrote briefly for the now defunct eyepiece.com. The following was a review dated June 6, 1998.
The Truman Show
Paramount,
Rated PG
If Hollywood would go back to making more films like this instead of more plotless and soulless excuses for spending a lot of money on nothing but special effects, more people would actually be able to take some pride in working within the studio system. It would be easy to imagine your typical cheesy ending tacked to The Truman Show, but the script stays crisp and solid right to the last second. Had Paramount released it during the Christmas season (instead of being bumped aside by Titanic), it would have been a excellent contender for the Academy Award (though Titanic is still a fine film, despite any backlash against the hype)... and The Truman Show would surely have garnered a screenplay nomination as well.
There is a difference between what a film is, and what it becomes after the marketing department gets through with it... in this case, a comedy about a man in a virtual zoo. It's too bad the filmmakers don't have as much say in the writing of the ads as they do in the film. I can now only wonder what it would've been like to go into the theater not already knowing that Jim Carrey was actually on TV or that Arnold was actually the good guy on T2. The Truman Show isn't really a comedy and it's not really a drama (in that old family-struggles-through-unforeseen-crisis way). Part of what makes it so engaging is its failure to fit in any established genre. You might say it's a lighthearted but hard-hitting scifi mystery social-commentary, with a heart.
While it would have been too easy to present the world outside the show as a "bleeding heart liberal" view of grime and crime, it merely looks real, with just a touch of dull lighting to hint that it's not all a Leave It to Beaver world in the real reality. But inside the show, you might say Truman Burbank is living in a minor version of heaven.
Since films get their funds from a different source than TV, it's always a bit easier to criticize "that other medium". But the Truman Show also takes stabs at product placement, a phenomenon seeping into the film industry much to the embarrassment of those filmmakers who still feel some sense of sacredness about their craft.
Ed Harris is as excellent as the man on the moon as Carrey is wonderful as everyman. The rest of the cast is equally first rate. But to Weir and Niccol's credit, the story itself is the real star... a welcome relief from the films starring a tornado or a lizard. I would have to subscribe to the belief that stars don't make a movie, a movie makes a star, and then the star makes the box office. Here's hoping Carrey gets The Truman Show the box office it deserves.
There are parallels with this year's earlier Dark City in The Truman Show's dissection of reality. Who knows, you may be on TV right now as you read this review... sent either as a hint or merely a provocation to see how you would react.
Some things I notice, now rereading my writing, besides what has been mentioned previously:
1. Playing on the pride of those working in the industry.
2. Attempts at social commentary in a film review? What is this world coming to?