Interesting Story, could have done more with it

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 1999)

I finally watched the Truman Show after all of the talk I had heard about it and all of the articles I had read. I really had high expectations for the film that was supposingly "robbed" of a Best Picture Nomination. I must say I felt let down.
Anyone who thinks that Jim Carrey's performance is Oscar-worthy is insanely out of their mind. Saying that is similar to asking why Tom Hanks didn't get an Oscar nod for "The 'burbs." Carrey gives a decent performance that to me differed in no way from any of the performances that he has done before. There are still elements of his comic side (scene in which he drives around in circles trying to foil the other cars) present here and he really never comes through with any element of real drama, it all seems fake. However, who knows? Hanks started his acting career by doing mainly comedies until Philadelphia and look what happened to him.
The film itself is directed well by Peter Weir who I felt had so much potential to use other interesting facets of the life of Truman. It seems that we are given a quick intro into the life of Truman and are all too quickly rushed into his ploy to get out of the dome and fly to Fiji. If only the first half of the film was devoted to what life is like for Truman and some of the neat ways everything that he does ends up on camera, this film could have been much better. We are hardly introduced to his family, friend and co-workers before the film turns on itself and leaves a lot of interesting issues untouched.
The Truman show is a good film overall, however, not even close to the near-greatness achieved in two of the Best Picture nominees that I have seen so far (Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare In Love). I guess I'll have to look to EdTV for more of what I was looking for.
7/10 stars.