Life is a Creation

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2016)

From the moment we are old enough to grab a marker with our small fingers, we toy with the idea of creating our own world within this one. Artists are simply the lucky ones who manage to grow up while retaining the possibility of making a living out of the creative act. But the idea of playing God is inherent to all of us, so much that the idea that we are simply part of a bigger creation is deeply ingrained within our cultural genoma.
The Truman Show takes this to the ultimate end: the possibility of creating an entire world from scratch, the possibility of playing with someone's life and control it in every single extent. It is noteworthy how such an experiments ends up looking an awful lot like George Orwell's 1984. In the end, God might not be much more than just a (benevolent?) totalitarian dictator.
The resemblance to Plato's allegory of the Cave is quite clear. And as such, it is not hard to figure out what will happen once Truman begins to notice that his everyday life is simply shadows cast on the wall of the cave. No matter how much the Creator tries to distract him, the idea is already incepted in his brain: he will try to leave the cave.
But the notion that the outer world, outside the cave, is our own world, is somewhat disturbing. One tends to think of Plato's allegory of the cave as a quest for the Utopian, but if the world outside the cave is our own, dirty and imperfect world, wouldn't it make more sense to remain in the cave? Confronting ourselves with the real world will render all quest for the Ideal futile. No wonder the existentialist had such a hard time once they denied the existence of God. The only thing left to do, then, is to turn the allegory of the cave upside down: if the outer world is so imperfect, we might look for perfection within our own, personal caves (which is what Creators do).
The Truman Show is a very engaging movie, that tricks us with its looks of yet another Jim Carrey blockbuster, only to have us trapped into a thought-provoking experience that will keep us awake at night. It is a turning point in Carrey's career, in which he proves that laughs is not the only thing he can provoke in the viewers. It is a movie full of hope, that encourages all of us to leave our own, personal caves.