Chilling (spoilers below)

Rating: Null/10 (16 February 2003)

Sporting performances of depth and subtlety and with a brilliant storyline, "The Truman Show" is an exhilarating satire on media saturation in the modern world. Whilst it is certainly flawed to a degree, the picture's plot and theme ring true all too often. The effect is chilling.
Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a quiet, mild-mannered insurance worker in the small coastal town of Seahaven. What he has been unaware of up until this point is that his entire life, from the day he was born, has been filmed as part of 24-hour TV show and that everyone he knows, even his wife and best friend, is an actor. Seahaven itself is really a gigantic set built for the show. But little by little, Truman begins to suspect the truth, culminating in a rebellion that shatters the very foundations of his existence.
With shows like "Big Brother" and "Castaway" playing with the very idea of "reality TV", not to mention media obsession with celebrity, "The Truman Show" really hits home and acts as a very powerful cautionary tale about media greed, power and intrusion. The film argues that surrendering to media power will mean we lose the ability to think and act for ourselves.

The film ties this in with an attack on small-town life, seeing it as stuffy, restrictive and fake. This theme is embodied in Seahaven's surroundings, which are beautiful but ultimately synthetic, and the people that inhabit them, actors who have become too used to routine and who repeat the same lines and moves day in and day out. The analogy to the real thing is both subtle yet shocking.
Gradually seeing through all this is Jim Carrey as Truman. Unlike films like "Ace Ventura" and "Dumb and Dumber", this is a role where Carrey really gets to stretch his acting, as opposed to just his facial, muscles. He pulls the role off very well, creating a convincing character who never loses his essential goodness even as the disturbing reality of his life eventually becomes clear to him.
Another terrific performance is Ed Harris as the show's creator Christof, who controls Truman's every move from a room hidden in the set's moon. Christof appears to care alot about Truman, but he's really only concerned with ratings and money and this is what finally proves his undoing.

Carrey and Harris are supported by an array of brilliant, well-cast supporting players who served very well by a witty and suspenseful script.

The scenario isn't entirely perfect. In fact, the whole setup appears so fragile it seems a wonder Truman didn't work the whole thing out earlier. But this is a very minor flaw.
Well-directed and very well-acted, "The Truman Show" stands as a frightening but thought-provoking parable on media power that is still very relevant in these chaotic times.