An Impressive Satirical Take On The Absurdity of Reality Television.

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2014)

A straight shot into my all-time favourites, an excellent satire of reality television & an impressive demonstration of the power of media, The Truman Show is one of the most original, creative & thought-provoking ideas to surface on the silver screen and wonderfully balances its elements of comedy with drama to deliver a cinema that's as entertaining as it is enlightening.
The Truman Show chronicles the life of Truman Burbank whose entire life has been nothing but a 24x7 running TV show. The city he lives in is a huge studio with hidden cameras everywhere & the people he interacts with on a daily basis are paid actors but when a series of events force him to question the world around him, Truman embarks on a quest to discover the truth.
Written by Andrew Niccol & directed by Peter Weir, the best thing about The Truman Show is that unlike many high-concept films of its genre, it manages to keep itself grounded throughout its runtime and with its light-hearted narration, easily penetrates into the minds of even the most casual viewers without for once compromising with its entertainment factor.
The production design is no short of amazing as the entire city resonates a sense of artificiality like a movie set yet has a certain realism to it, cinematography makes expert use of camera angles by capturing the events from different point of views thus adding more authenticity to the plot, editing keeps the drama flowing smoothly & music also manages to make its presence felt.
Coming to the performances, the film features an interesting cast in Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris & others and, stepping aside from his typecast roles, Carrey surprises everyone with a dense, dramatic & well-balanced performance that is truly heartwarming. Ed Harris plays the show's creator who really cares about Truman in his own way but loves his show too & Harris did a terrific job in capturing both sides of his character.
On an overall scale, The Truman Show is a stellar work of quality whether you put it in the genre of comedy, science-fiction, drama or all at once & is equally effective as a meditation on the various themes it deals with, be it religion, philosophy, artificiality or existentialism. A heartfelt, hilarious & satirical take on the absurdity of reality television, The Truman Show is one of the finest examples of how to blend art with entertainment in order to make it work for the masses. Highly recommended.