Fantastic, an underrated classic. Incredible film

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2016)

This film hasn't aged a minute.
It's an incredible exploration of the human psyche and spirit, to be sure, but it's also a love story. The love story is between Truman Burbank and his true self. In his trueness to himself, he cannot accept this reality as presented by Christof. When he starts trying to escape it, things and people start to look more transparent, and he begins to see illusions everywhere.
It all starts with a stage light dropping out of the sky onto the street. Whoops! As he is given more and more clues, he starts trying new unpredictable things and observing the towns response. This escalates and it becomes truly fascinating.
His obsession with Lauren, or Sylvia as it were, -is- just a little creepy, yes, but just how anyone would respond to being put in this situation is completely up for debate. Just what is the "correct" way to respond to this situation anyway? Remember he was born into it. This is his whole life.
Christof's response to his escape attempt is indicative of his mindset: Truman is a Christof production--that is, Christof owns him. There was never any doubt that Truman's spirit would overcome everything that'd been programmed into him, because this is the story of a man who refuses to be a product. To be owned. To be a slave. "You don't have cameras in my mind!"
I saw this for the first time when it came out, and it has remained one of my favorite movies of all time. I found the ending to be stunning, watching this illusion fall like a house of cards is almost spiritual. There are no fancy special effects (other than the aerial view of the Truman's set; any other effects are quite transparent,) no out of control self-indulgent fanciness, no blockbusterism present at all. Merely solid craft work and an incredibly well done story.
That's all it needs. If you haven't already, see it.