Though-provoking and a little scary

Rating: Null/10 (28 February 1999)

The Truman Show is entertaining at the same time that it is frightening. The frightening insight into the Truman Show is that the main character's very life is television. The kicker is that he does not realize it. Every part of his life, his daily routine, from when he gets up to when he goes to bed and even while he sleeps, is broadcast to the world. He exists in kind of the ultimate fishbowl: a gargantuan artificial terrarium ("one of only two structures in the world that are visible from space!") that contains within it the village of Seahaven, a coastal town where Truman Burbank, the unwitting star, lives and works as an insurance agent.
The film provides a semi-serious role for Jim Carrey, an actor who I at first found tasteless but have recently grown to respect, not the least because of his performance in this movie. He is required to walk a fine line between comedy and wistfullness. It is a tricky job but he pulls it off, creating a believable performance as a man who is just beginning to suspect that there is something off in his universe.
More than anything else, the movie gives the audience a lot to think and talk about. The modern media has entered into our private lives to a unprecedented degree over the last two decades. Although I doubt such an undertaking could ever be seriously contemplated, just how far are we from the Truman Show? How far are we willing to go? The film also raises serious questions about the quality of life. Is is better to live a life in paradise and never know it is fake and that everyone is watching, or to live in "our" reality? It may seem like a simple question, but just think about it, and it won't seem so simple, and then watch this movie.