Wait a second, where will he go? Into another deceitful world, leaving former lies behind?

Rating: 9/10 (20 August 2006)

Christof, the omnipotent, authoritative, media-savvy producer-director in The Truman Show, is identified with Christian. Everything, from sunrise-sunset to each passer-by in the Utopian town named Seahaven, is in his charge, without mentioning Truman, the leading role in this show. Since the day he was born, Truman has been taken good care of by a crop of actors and actresses and functioned as the protagonist of an international televised, 24-hour-a-day series called The Truman Show. 5,000 hidden cameras follow Truman everywhere he goes, chronicling every trivia of his growth. Unknown to him is the trick known to all.
Until someday, from nowhere falls a light equipment. Later, he is soaked in his own rainstorm. When he moves, the rain moves after him. Then, through an oversight, his lost-at-sea father is rearranged into the show again, appearing like a transient in the street. Truman is puzzled by all these inconsistencies. What's worse, on his way to work one day, the radio gets adrift to report his trace in every detail due to a slip of technique. It's paradoxical to call these inconsistencies deliberate coincidences. Because that's what Christof hates but Peter Weif and Andrew Niccol expects.
We have no doubt carelessness beyond control is here and there in Truman's life. It's only a matter of time before Truman to piece out the loopholes together and find out the truth. He is determined to leave the counterfeit world when he is exposed, mercilessly, to the fact that this so-called perfect life he leads is no more than a show-biz illusion where only he is true while others exit merely as walk-ons. Since all other transport doesn't serve him, he chooses sea. (In order to keep him from leaving Seahaven, he has been inculcated with a fear of water. He has expectedly developed a phobia of water since the night his father lost at sea, a catastrophe designed to frighten him.) Having survived all weird rainstorms under Christof's control, he sails cheerfully to his dream world, only to find the sky, the clouds looking so beautiful in distance are pictures in a wall and the horizon itself leads nowhere.
Jim Carrey plays Truman. He is so likable an actor that you cannot refuse any film he takes part in. Most of his films are characteristic of his hilarious performances. But his role in this one is, I should say, light year away from the antics he used to do. He is quite controlled and convincing.
As a sharp-witted, intriguing and offbeat piece of entertainment, the film can be dissected from different angles. And it inevitably raises some questions. To me, the end is hallucination. I admit the end is hopeful to most audience. It seems to reach to consummate when Truman opens the door in the wall and strides out. We are about to applause. Wait a second, where will he go? Into a world full of new lies, leaving former lies behind? So I'd rather have a hateful end.