Truman Show, The (DVD)

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Imagine you lived the idyllic life in the most perfect town in the world. Yours was an existence that makes Pleasantville look like Cabrini Greens. Your neighbors are Fred and Ethyl, Lucy and Dezi. Though there are struggles at work, there is no real fear of losing your job because, somehow, it all works out in the end.

And now imagine that it´s all been a lie, your entire life, and you´re the unwitting star of the world´s most popular reality television show, one which broadcasts your every move and has done so since your birth. This is the essence of "The Truman Show." The creator, a god-like allegory called Christof (Ed Harris) watches over the world of Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey). He created a paradise of life where Truman can live out his days for the entertainment of millions. People turn to The Truman Show for a sense of the familiar, of comfort. They look to him as a guide, buying the products not-so-subtly placed for sale in the program. The audience views Truman less as a hero, though he is certainly an icon, than they do an object of fascination. As a protagonist the audience is drawn to him through a somewhat sick voyeuristic obsession. They sleep with him on at night, sleeping with them. They peek in on him during his most intimate moments and while he´s in the bathroom.

"The Truman Show" begs the question… can a persons reality be controlled? Truman has lived his entire life on the sunny shore of Seahaven, an island community presumably in Florida. In reality it´s a climate-controlled biosphere in California, just as phony as everything else in Truman´s world. Though the rain can fall on cue, it´s hard to corral the thoughts and emotions of a person. For instance, Truman sees an extra on the set who catches his eye with her mysterious charm, though she does everything in her power to drive him away. Truman´s interactions with Sylvia (Natasha McElhone) is completely unscripted and despite attempts from the cast to steer Truman into the path set down by the producers, he is taken by the young woman. When she is ripped from him by another actor, it begins a life-long obsession with her and traveling to Fiji.

The problem is that Truman is scared to travel. He´s had boundaries enforced in his reality since he was a small child. Of course he would need such boundaries for the concept of the show to work. It was scripted that Truman would lose his father during a sailing accident, something that made him deathly afraid to go on or over water. It´s subtly reinforced by his mother and wife, reminding him often of how frightened he should be. Additionally the world he lives in talks of the dangers of plane travel, has little luck finding a bus that will take him out of the city and when he finally does make it out, finds a nuclear disaster site full of people determined to prevent him from continuing on his journey. It culminates in the question: At what point does this controlled reality become a voyeuristic prison that takes away the life of a man without his knowledge?

Part of the reason that the very concept of "The Truman Show" works is that Jim Carrey is just so damned affable. He possesses a magnetic charm that blows away any doubt that people would want to watch his every move. If a less charismatic actor were pulled in to play the part, I can hardly see the audience, meaning us, accepting the root concept of the program. But because Carrey is slightly unstable though generally predictable, we´re able to see through the eyes of the audience into the cultural phenomenon that is The Truman Show. Carrey plays the innocence of Truman to a T and I found his process of discovery awe inspiring. Discovering that the world you live in is a fantasy would be an abominable process for even the most competent person… but Carrey makes it both interesting and entertaining to watch.

The other reason the film works is because of the supporting cast. It´s got to be difficult to play an actor playing a role, but Laura Linney and Noah Emmerich do an outstanding job walking that thin line. They seem plastic yet believable enough to fit into Truman´s perception of reality. They become melodramatic at times, playing out the drama in an operatic fashion, but it´s perfectly plausible in Truman´s world. This is, again, a true version of the sitcoms of the 50s where such dialogue was accepted as reality.