The Truman Show- an extremely touching film

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2019)

The Truman Show is a beautiful film that I've seen countless times. It stars Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, a man who has no idea that his life is being secretly filmed and broadcast to the entire world on TV (hence the title).
Plot: Truman is an average insurance salesman, with a pretty wife whom he doesn't really love, a fairly large house, and a working class best friend. He's an average upper middle class American. Truman starts to catch on to the fact that something isn't right with his life, because everything's right with his life. It all starts when he sees what he believes to be his supposedly dead father, who was written off of the show when Truman was little. The creator wrote him off as a death at sea, which Truman witnessed as a child, so he's be scared enough to stay on the large island TV set. Truman's determination that he saw his father, alive and well leads him to discover how lots of little things are just slightly off about his life. This crisis leads him to a point near insanity.
My thoughts: I'll start with Jim Carrey. Carrey absolutely shines in this role, which was really his first role that wasn't in a wacky comedy. He is very average and relatable, which makes it all the more sad when things start to go wrong (or right, depending on your view) for him. He is fantastically heartbreaking in the final scene, where after riding a boat through the sea, reaches the wall and talks to the creator of the show, Christoph. Christoph is very much a god figure to Truman, since he has controlled every aspect of his life up until now. The movie is incredibly entertaining, and provides a wide range of emotions, from laughter, to nostalgia, to heartbreak. It has some great comedy lines, like "What's it going to be Meryl, are you gunna slice me, dice me, or peel me?! There are so many choices, aren't there!" but it also as some genuinely tragic moments, like when it's revealed that the woman Truman really loves was taken away, because she wasn't part of the script, and when Truman reaches the wall and is pounding on it, trying to find some way, any way, to escape. At one point while he's on the boat, Christoph contemplated killing Truman with a storm, and even attempts it, and Truman seems absolutely fine with this. He'd rather die than be confined. The movie also has a very nice message about doing what makes you happy, even when it doesn't conform with your supposed destiny. Overall a fantastic, touching film, and one of the films that got me into movies in the first place at that. I can't think of a single flaw. 10/10