Great film despite lots of weaknesses

Rating: 8/10 (1 November 1998)

At last The Truman Show has reached the mainland of Europe. And after all the hype I saw on IMBb reviews, I must confess that I am a little bit disappointed. True, the movie makes its depressing theme "life imitates the media" very clear, and I would advise every critic who mistakenly calls this a comedy, to look up that word in a dictionary and compare the result with the things he has witnessed on the screen. The view on society that is pictured in The Truman Show is very bleak indeed. Still, good drama should be believable all the way and it is here that director and scriptwiter let us down. The suggestion is that people are watching the show day in day out and never consider switching channels. Why? Of course the idea of an actor believing he is leading a normal life is appealing (to the audience), but is it entertaining as well? What happens when Truman goes to sleep, and his house is dark and silent during seven or eight hours? In fact, what happened in the first couple of years of his life, when he wasn't up to anything more substantial than crying while lying down or whatever an infant does to pass the time? It is hardly likely that viewers enjoyed the continuous sight of an infant solely for the reason that it wasn't aware of this "immoral" intrusion of its privacy.
Another weak point in the story is the fact that the artificial nature of Seahaven becomes rapidly visible during the film while up to then the phoney aspects of life in Truman's hometown were successfully hidden. How come never before a lamp fell down from the ceiling? How come never before the local radio channel was inadvertently intruded by conversations of the film crew? How come it took Truman thirty years to discover that the elevator in the building next to his office really wasn't an elevator at all? In short, what are the odds that it takes a not too dumb guy like Truman thirty years to discover within a few days the extent of the manipulation by the film makers? The really amazing thing of the movie is that, despite all these silly loose ends in the script, the viewer is as indignant as he should be about a man being manipulated for such a long time, for no other reason than making a megalomaniac getting his kicks.