The Truman Show and the Irony

Rating: 8/10 (20 June 2018)

Maybe the Truman Show poses a reality to all of us. Sometimes we are stuck on an island that we can't get out of. We are played on by people around us, we become an exhibit that they can look at and be entertained. As I watched the Truman Show, I realized that life isn't very different from what Truman had to deal with in the film. The movie brings to us a kind of an indisputable truth through a narrative that's without a question, impractical. The experience seemed so real to me-every bit of paranoia and fear on Jim Carrey's face seemed extremely familiar. It was like encountering a truth that you have always been aware of, but needs a rousing occasionally. It's not like a name that you know or a fact that you are aware of, it's something that you already know by virtue of feeling it-like breathing-you know you are in the rhythm at all times but you don't acknowledge it. Very rarely, movies hit me pretty hard: it could be just a scene or a piece of soundtrack so brilliantly coupled with a sequence that you no longer need words to make a connection or sometimes, it is the sheer power of the screenplay. The Truman Show hit me pretty hard, not only because of Carrey's amazing talent to bring out emotions so impeccably onscreen, but because the story seems so much in contradiction to reality, yet so close to everything that's real. For instance, there is a scene where Truman and Marlon sit next to each other and have a chat as they watch the sunset. Truman knows something is wrong. He knows he is being watched. The scene comes across as very intimate in the beginning, where both friends recount early childhood memories and Marlon tries to convince Truman that if everyone was in on it, then he'd have to be in on it too and that he'd never lie to his dear childhood friend, one that came closest to being "a brother". From Truman's perspective, there was probably nothing more beautiful at that moment, a friend telling him what he meant to him and that everything will be okay. It was a kind of a reassurance-a feeling of warmth in the dire state of confusion that Truman was in. But to the audience, there is nothing more sinister than Marlon listening to Christof, the creator of the show, on the other end, picking cues and delivering his dialogues-just doing his job. This particular scene struck me as being a brilliant portrayal of how relationships work in real life. Everything that we think is true-the love and trust- happens to be a just a perspective. We are all Truman, digging the warmth of friendship and familiarity while not being really aware of the voice of a Christof. We think we lead a life of our own, but we have so many people leading it for us.
Towards the end, as Truman decides to step out through the exit door of his "life", Christof tells him that there is no more truth in the real world out there than there already is in the world that was created for him. I may come off as being rather cynical when I say this, but at that moment, it sounded right to me. Despite that, Jim Carrey walking out with a final bow in the iconic end scene made me happy. Maybe, sometimes, the choice can be ours.
At one point, Christof says, "We accept the reality of the world with which we are provided." In the end, two security guards just switch the channel in search of a new exciting show. I am not a nihilist, but sometimes, pieces of art such as these make me wonder.