The Truman Show - Life eventually imitated art?

I remember hearing the briefest of synopsis of 'The Truman Show' in a film magazine that was promoting the next year's upcoming movies.  It just read, 'Jim Carrey discovers he's a character in a TV show.' I have to say that that description hardly blew me away as I didn't know what to make of it.  Saying it like that makes it sound much more simple and goofy than it really is.  I didn't go and see it when it was theatrically released, but after the positive word of mouth it generated, I felt I had to see it for myself.

I can't really sum it up any better.  Jim Carrey slowly discovers that the world around him is one giant TV set and he's the (unwitting) star, as cameras have been following his life ever since his birth.  It was actually a pretty novel concept back in 1998. 'Big Brother' and various other reality TV shows had not yet taken over our airwaves, making this film quite ahead of its time.

Carrey plays, 'Truman Burbank,' a happy-go-lucky fella who slowly starts to realise that there's something very wrong with the world and its inhabitants who exist all around him.  From there, he slowly begins to unravel the plot for himself.  It's all great fun and you really want to root for Truman to succeed in escaping this 'prison/goldfish bowl' he exists in.  Jim Carrey is known for his 'larger than life' characters, but I'm pleased to say that he's dialed it down here and is much less manic than his other outings such as 'The Mask' or 'Ace Ventura.'

Not just is it a quirky little drama, but it throws in many a dose of healthy social commentary of society and their obsession with television and the characters they spend their lives watching.  However, I doubt that the film-makers ever realised how true to life this would all be with the amount of reality TV shows which were to follow it.

Personally, I loved it and - despite it being a bit out of date now - I think it holds up perfectly as a warning of our obsession with TV.  For what it's worth, I'll mention my friend's thoughts on it.  He didn't like it because he thought it was all too far fetched.  He felt that if the cameras had been following Truman since birth (approximately thirty years by the time we join him), that would mean the TV show started around 1968 and, back then, studios didn't have the technology to pull this off.  I simply disregarded that as a nit-pick.  This film is too good to look that deeply into and risk putting yourself off enjoying the ride.

I guess I'll leave it up to its 'tagline' to say it best. 'On Air.  Unaware.' Well done to the Marketing man who came up with that one!

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather