Fun but far too many gaping holes even for a fantasy

Rating: 4/10 (17 August 2008)

There's a point at which some works of fiction ask you to convert the "willing suspension of disbelief" which we must bring to any fictional work into "throwing all critical faculties completely to the winds", and that's what happens here. This film is mildly entertaining for a while..until you start actually thinking about some of what it asks you to take for granted. 1. Weather on demand. While we've all seen wave making pools, has anyone actually seen the technology to create violent localized storms? (While there are some who claim the "secret" government has such weather control technology, even they supposedly can only do it over a large area.) On a sound stage, this could only have been done with giant fans and large, obvious water-spewing machinery. Where were the fans and the other machinery? Or are we supposed to believe all that weather just came out of thin air? 2. Ventilation. With all the car exhaust and heat generated by the community and the artificial lighting, there obviously would have to be giant air conditioning systems (remember, the dome was supposed to be a closed, sealed location) to dissipate the heat and provide fresh air. Where were all the giant vents that would've been needed? The a/c equipment? The constant noise that large a/c equipment generates? 3. Wouldn't Truman have noticed that there were never any airplanes or helicopters seen flying anywhere? Wouldn't he have asked "why don't we have any aircraft here?" I can't think of any "excuse" for that which would have been even remotely plausible. 4. For this "community" to have gone on so long, it would've meant that all of Truman's "schoolmates" weer actors who grew up there along with him. Does anyone really think that so many children (actors, no less) could have kept such a big secret for so many years? Come on, now! You can bet that more than one kid over all that time would've felt the need to spill the beans. 5. Laura Linney's character was initially shown as a cheerleader. That means that the island's high school played competitive sports with other schools. So...does that mean they NEVER played an "away" game?? Wouldn't Truman have thought that to be a little strange? And would all of the opposing team's athletes have agreed to be bought off and keep silent? How much money would it have cost to buy the silence of those kids, in addition to all of those mentioned in 4. above? No t.v. show would have been able to marshal the huge budget necessary to pull all of this off on an ongoing basis -- not to mention the huge budget just to pay all of the hundreds of actors. 6. All t.v., radio, magazines, newspapers, movies and internet (yes, internet existed when this movie was made) coming to the island would have had to be censored of any references to The Truman Show. There's no way a t.v. network would be able to exercise such total control. Truman would have noticed that the only media were locally generated. Wouldn't he have asked why he was cut off from everything else? 7. Even if the supposed explanation that he was adopted by a corporation was valid, the moment he was restrained from free movement of any kind the corporation (and thus Christof) was committing the felony of kidnapping -- a federal crime which wouldn't have been excused. 8. There were even internal inconsistencies..e.g., "Christof" said in the Harry Shearer interview that all revenues for the show were generated by product placement. If that's so, then why did "Meryl" have to hold up various products to the camera and deliver spiels? 9. We're supposed to believe that "Meryl" was so upset by some of the manifestations of Truman's waking-up process that she breaks into tears and claims she "can't work under these conditions, it's not professional". But at the same time, we're supposed to believe that living for years in a sham marriage with a man she doesn't love (and presumably, routinely having sex with him) was perfectly okay with her, simply because it was a paid gig! That's pretty cold, even for Hollywood.