What is real?

Rating: 9/10 (3 July 2013)

The ingenuity of "The Truman show" lies in so far as it can be interpreted in a variety of discourses and on so many levels. The discussions about the prescience of reality-TV and the satire of the American Dream notwithstanding; to me, this film is a theological dialogue regarding the existence of humanity.
Andrew Niccol writes a mind-altering script which is seemingly inspired by the writings of Philip.K.Dick, the great visionary and writer, who threw mankind a simple yet grave question - What is real? It is indeed a query raised in varying degrees, in Bible too. If you think philosophy also, these are the questions man has been asking himself since eternity - Who exactly am I? What is the point of me being here? So Truman's journey through the sea to the 'real' world almost becomes mankind's journey to its maker, or to the ultimate truth of existence.
When Truman finds the door out of the simulated world, Christoff's voice speaks to him in an almost celestial manner, as like an oracle - "I am your creator". Here is an existential undertone, Christoff telling Truman that he has watched him all his life resounds Estragon in "Waiting for Godot" when he says, "Does God watch over me as I stand, wait, live?" What Truman wants to say to his 'God' is "Don't watch over me at all". It is almost an antithesis to Estragon's plea. Christoff then asks Truman to return to his old world, that this new world is no more a true world than the world he has known. Truman is in a dialectic predicament(brilliantly portrayed by Jim Carrey). His situation here almost parallels Kierkegaard's paradoxical and ambiguity-laden view of human life. He has to make a choice; to return to the familiar world or to proceed to the real world. This sequence reinforces the notion of free choice and rejects predestination. Truman makes his choice and is free to move close to reality or simply to what is true.
"The Truman Show" is a work of genius, it is an endeavour at the quest for the reasons of our being. It is almost an ontological conversation mankind would want to have with its 'CREATOR'.