This Movie Made Me Angry!

Rating: 2/10 (20 March 2000)

I liked the premise of the film: A boy is raised from infancy in a controlled environment for the benefit of, NOT SCIENCE, but for the benefit of a rapt television audience. The possibilities were there for tremendous tension and confrontation. However, what we got was a feel-good, cop-out ending of such massive proportion that I literally felt like shaking the filmmakers and saying, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
SPOILERS AHEAD

The main reason for my wrath was the ending. If you have not seen the film, you are duly warned to stop reading here.
We are supposed to cheer for Truman along with the television audience as he finds the doorway to freedom. I felt that to be a MAJOR cop-out. Truman needed to confront the people who turned his entire life into a lie. I wanted to see him confront his "so-called" best friend who lied to Truman POINT-BLANK. Where was the payback? Where was the justice? Where was the ethical outrage? We get humorous scenes of "Free Truman" factions attempting to alert Truman to his plight, but does Truman ever make anyone feel bad for what they did to him? Christof certainly felt justified in his approach, as did all of the paid actors AND the TV audience. But, if I was Truman, I'd use the opportunity to teach Christof, the actors, AND the TV audience a lesson about how to treat people. But it was an opportunity squandered.
In my opinion, there were only 2 good characters in the film: Truman, and the woman he loved. Other than that, EVERY OTHER CHARACTER lies to Truman. EVERY OTHER CHARACTER deceives Truman. There needed to be some satisfactory confrontation, but there wasn't. It was the most empty feeling I've ever had watching a movie. I only rated it on film quality and not script content because the film is actually very artfully executed.
But my point is this: Escape (in this case, Truman's) sometimes isn't enough. You sometimes must teach those who wronged you a lesson. You must show them the error in their ways, and those responsible should pay dearly for their moral and ethical transgressions. This movie THOROUGHLY disappointed me.