Five Things I Liked in "The Truman Show"

Yeah nothing to celebrate this year. Not as if it’s the 20th anniversary of one of my favorite movies of all time. Sigh. I think I’ll check before I say that in the future. Anyway……

Hard to believe how little I’ve talked about this seeing how it really is one of my favorite movies ever. But then again it is a movie that’s a little hard to get a grasp on. It’s more of an artsy film and normally I hate those. This one works. I was surprised to see people hating on this movie but when I read the reviews I see what they’re saying. It’s not a “normal” movie which can be off putting. The pacing is slow, the plot a tad farfetched, and there’s almost no story structure. People who don’t want to read anything into a movie, they just want straight forward comedy or action plainly stated, will hate this movie.  Others hate it because it doesn’t try enough, but I disagree. If you’re willing to look a little deeper than it’s worth it.

 

Normally in these articles I pick on five things I hate in a movie I love, but the heck with that. Not only is that hard to to do here, but it’s time this movie gets some praise. So here are five reason I love this movie. And no this is not an in depth Analysis. I wish I were smart enough for that. I’m just a fan and this is for fun.





The Soundtrack

This is the one thing I talked about once before but damn is that sound track perfect. Every piece of music helps to enhance whatever scene it’s in. My favorite is the march while Truman is wandering the town square trying to figure what the hell is going on.








The Cast/Acting

This was one of the first dramatic roles Jim Carey had, and I think it’s the role that made people realize he could actually do decent drama. He won a Golden Glove for this and it’s no surprise why. Laura Linney is real good being the “Donna Reed” style housewife crossed with a game show supermodel as she was also being a pitchman for various products. It’s obvious she has no real feelings for Truman, but this is a job. Noah Emmerich as Marlon is a very complex character if you read into it. Yeah he plays Truman’s best friend but he spent years lying to him. Does he really like Truman or is this just a job to him? And of course Ed Harris is just great taking a pretty boring role and making it memorable. His character is so subtly sinister, he truly believes he is doing a wonderful thing for Truman and when Truman walks away at the end it breaks him. And hey, it took me a few viewings to realize that guy in the control room is Paul Giamatti. Cool! Not an unknown then but not he big name he has become,






The Symbolism

As I said I usually hate artsy movies, one reason because you have to dig in and try to pick all the little symbolic references to get what the director is truing to say. Take “The Cell” as an example of a movie like that. That movie sucked because they tried to make it a typical crime movie too and it didn’t work. Here though the “real world” is hardly seen and the symbolism is a lot less subtle which I think helps. You don’t have to write an essay explaining why Truman is so anxious to get out of the town, it makes perfect sense he feels trapped there. And the subtle ways the show has kept them there are clever. I did love how the real world scenes which convey the differences between the made up world. You can almost understand Christof’s argument that he is doing Truman a favor letting him live in utopia. Neither are wrong in that scene when Sylvia accuses him of being a monster. And I love the anti-Truman Show stuff we see in Sulvia’s apartment letting us know not everyone thinks using a child this way is a very good idea, it did inspire controversy.

Oh and need I mention how closer this movie is to the “social media” world we live in today? Next you’ll tell me we’ll have a reality TV host as president….aw crap







The Pacing

Yeah this is another reason some could hate this movie. The pacing is not a normal one. The first half is almost disconnected from the second half. After all the drama with Truman and his father getting reunited, the movie kind of stops and switches gears to be less about Truman and more about the people in the control room. That kind of POV shift is jarring and you wont see it very often. Also the scenes are very staged. They do this to show how fake this world is but it can be awkward the first time through, with no scene lasting very long before we go to the next shot. I can see why someone would say it doesn’t feel like a movie. It doesn’t! And to illustrate the point we gets tons of shots from the POV of the camera’s in the studio and that can also be weird. So yeah I can see why someone going into this movie clueless may be weirded out. Give it a second try though, you may be surprised.






That Last Scene

Now to be fair not everything works in this movie. The flashback scene for instance is a bit to long, and I never understood why they didn’t have the father tell Truman they were just “going away”. Saying Fiji just gave Truman a destination to fixate on. A lot of things don’t pay off, like how Meryl just disappears from the movie (a deleted scene gives the reason better) and all that stuff about Truman’s father seems so important only to mean nothing in the end. Truman jumping on a boat is so contradictory that the movie itself points it out. But what makes all of it worth it is that final five minutes. After surviving a storm on the boat (long story) he crashes into the wall. We get Truman’s reaction with no dialogue (or even sounds) just the music conveying everything. Then the moment where Christoff tales to him, leading to Truman giving one last smile and bow to the audience. It’s one of the most perfect endings to any movie. Everyone in the real world cheers, and then wonders what else is going. Metaphor? My father when we saw this movie commented that he would have liked to have seen Truman actually meet with Sylvia at the end but I disagreed. It ended where it should have. The movie was about Truman escaping his prison, which in the end he does.

 

Is it perfect? Probably not. It’s not even a new idea. Yes, I saw that episode of “Amazing Stories” too. However there is one last reason I can’t help but relate to this film.  While I don’t thing it was a “psychiatric disorder” more than a very strong imagination, I spent a lot of time in my high school years pretending I was the star of my own show that was my life. It was a coping device but a bad one. It was after college I finally realized that in the end I had nothing real. While I actively sought to stop the silliness age and wisdom made it go away, and I missed out on some real friendships by being so caught up in my own little world. So, as Truman would say “Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!”

Anyway did you guys like this movie also? Comment and let me know.