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The Truman Show
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The Truman Show is a film full of facile points and
lazy laughs. It gives the impression of having been made less for those who
love or enjoy movies than for those media commentators who like to tut-tut
about the decline of TV, society and general moral values.
At every
point it windily denounces the hype and illusions of a media-fed society – yet
is itself a furiously over-hyped, glossy, vacuous exercise.
With Peter
Weir (Fearless, 1993, Witness, 1985) in the director's
chair, it is also something of a five-finger exercise, seemingly virtuosic as
it juggles its various pieces. Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) stars in a non-stop télé-vérité show devoted to his
ordinary, daily life: his work, his joys, his woes, his destiny. Truman's show
is a
Apart from
a few cryptic glimpses and clues near the very beginning, the script by Andrew
Niccol (Gattaca,
1997) holds off from showing us the complete behind-the-scenes reality for
quite some time. Until then, we mainly follow Truman as he encounters the first
signs of the program's breakdown – a movie light falling from the clear blue
sky, or his car radio suddenly broadcasting the director's instructions to
extras in the street.
The more
that Truman suspects he is trapped in some fiendish plot, the more he tests the
limits of his fake, prepackaged world. The film's only moments of wild, surreal
humour come at these points – when, for instance, he barges into a hospital to
watch an operation, or decides spontaneously to ride on a bus. These are also
the only moments when Carrey is allowed to do anything even remotely physical –
when he can do what he is best at as a comic performer.
Precious
little else in The Truman Show makes
much sense, or produces any effect of intriguing dramatic resonance. It is a
cold, contrived film. Many fine, popular movies place little premium on plot
plausibility, but this one suffers greatly from a thin, poorly worked out
high-concept.
Have the
other actors in Truman's show really been there all of his life, taking up set
positions at key moments and basically goofing off otherwise? Does the woman
reluctantly playing his wife, Meryl (Laura Linney), ever actually have sex with
him? How does a renegade actor, Lauren (Natascha McElhone), manage to steal
Truman away for a few 'authentic' moments of love?
The film's
presentation of the show's audience is equally woolly. Is the world of TV
viewers (disgracefully caricatured as a bunch of dumb, housebound automatons)
really enthralled by the sight of Truman sitting at his work desk, sleeping in
bed or going to the loo? And how can these viewers regard Truman's life as an
engrossing soap opera when they are also fully informed that it is all a fake?
Weir works
hard to imply (through the use of odd angles and masking devices) that what we
see of Truman's life is limited to exactly what the numerous, hidden TV cameras
see. This is an unwise choice that leads to much clumsy sleight of hand – and
many moments that simply break the ground rules that Weir establishes for
himself.
These
narrative and stylistic problems pale beside the film's larger pretensions. The
extravagant conceit devised by Niccol and Weir can only be artistically justified if Truman's nightmarish world serves as a decent
metaphor for our own society. On this level, however, the film is frankly risible.
Initially, the town of
Mid-way,
the theme becomes a little denser. If Seahaven is a prison, nonetheless Truman
as model citizen must voluntarily choose to stay within its limits forever. At
this point the film attempts a sermon on ideological control – with Truman
filled with inhibiting fears and fed a steady diet of
It is easy
to see what might have attracted Weir to this project. He has always been drawn
to the figure of the special man – sometimes an inspired, elevated hero (as in Dead Poets Society, 1989), sometimes a
deluded fool who takes his desire to disastrous extremes (as in The Mosquito Coast, 1986). This story
gives Weir both options in the face-off between Truman and the “televisionary”
in a beret who controls him, Christof (Ed Harris).
While
Christof is revealed to be a fallen angel, Truman eventually ascends to the
status of a Christ figure, facing likely martyrdom and crucifixion. The big,
watery climax which hammers such pompous symbolism home is also the ultimate
embodiment of everything that is horribly misjudged in The Truman Show.
MORE Carrey: The Cable Guy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Batman Forever, Man on the Moon, Fun with Dick and Jane, Liar Liar MORE Weir: Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Last Wave © Adrian Martin September 1998 |
