MIGHTY IMPACT - not as a comedy, but a sort of a horror scenario!

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2008)

So, I had my first experience with The Truman Show, 10 years after it was made, and man, the impact! Someone's going to say I took it too seriously, but I guess that's the way it is then.
The reason that I didn't go see this movie before is that it had Jim Carrey written all over it. I have grown to dislike Jim Carrey for the very reason for which he is the star he is - pulling faces! I believe I'm not the only one who has been wondering whether it's all that he's good for. It works for The Mask and Ace Ventura... but a lot of others? I don't know.
Having that said, I spent a few moments trying to think who else could have pulled this one off. Carrey kind of reminds me of Jack Nicholson. Every other actor sort of pale next to Nicholson and Carrey... They do the conventional acting thing while these two do their own thing. So props for that.
I believe this movie was labeled a comedy just because of Jim Carrey and that he's supposed to be a comedian. However, this movie didn't strike me as a comedy. Instead, I was scared, disturbed.
Everybody laments over how money makes the world turn around. Underneath, this movie offers a point of view on that: How far can that actually be taken? Surely, The Truman Show is an exaggeration on the subject... it also simultaneously exaggerates the fact that people don't care as long as they get their fix. Moreover, the fact that people don't care! There's even a part in the movie where it's freely discussed in the media, like it was okay to make a lab rat out of Truman Burbank. McElhone's character Sylvia/Lauren voices criticism and points out how cruel it is. (In my opinion, it's critical for the success of this movie. Props again.) And in the very end Christoph, the director, is brought on almost as if he was a God... and there's no denying that he's playing a God!
Alright, I've said a lot, but if you guys are thinking I'm slamming this movie, you've mistaken. Read on.
I feel that this movie has very little comedy value. Surely, some aspects of it are brought across by means of comedy, but that still doesn't make it one. However, I feel that's not important, though. I feel that it gives you something to think about, if you scratch a bit deeper than the surface.
And therein lies the greatness of the movie, worth of the 10 stars I gave it.