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The Truman Show Dir: Peter Weir Stars: Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, and Ed Harris Imagine the most embarrassing moments of your life - the ones that made you want to crawl under a rock and hide from the rest of humanity and never come out. Now imagine each one of those moments playing on the Jumbotron in Times Square and packaged in "greatest hits" tapes that sell next to "When Animals Attack" and "Navy Seals." The whole world views them as your best episodes. It's all part of daily life for Truman Burbank, star of "The Truman Show." Only he doesn't know it yet. Somewhere in between watching civilization (or New York) get pounded by big rocks and mutant lizards, summer audiences are going to pack theaters for "The Truman Show." Most will be curious whether Jim Carrey can be serious. Some will be looking for director Peter Weir's long-awaited follow-up to films like "Fearless," "Dead Poets' Society," and "Witness." Others will be intrigued by the premise of a man living on TV every moment of his life, 24 hours a day - more than Kenneth Starr even. No matter why they come, the will see a great film. Carrey's Truman is the first child legally adopted by a corporation. From the very moment of his birth, to his first steps and awkward adolescence, right down to his slowly dissolving marriage, everything is broadcast live to the largest audience in TV history. (Eat your heart out, Seinfeld.) Christoff, the show's director, has created his version of the perfect world around Truman. Everyone he knows is sweet and pleasant, and he lives a life Wally and the Beaver only dreamed of - all on a giant soundstage that can be seen from space. Perfect or not, it's hard not to start questioning your existence when rack lighting falls from the sky and you discover the extras and set designers behind the façade of a local office building. It's a wonderfully twisted trap, and Weir and cast pull it of well. So can Carrey be serious? Yes and no. It will be a long time before the rubber face snaps into a believable shape for a more dramatic situation. Carrey is fine in the role, but he has mugged for the audience so much, it's hard to separate any expression of true feeling from all the other faces he's thrown at audiences for a laugh. Still, the whole reason he's in the movie in the first place is because Weir wanted someone worth watching, otherwise it would be hard to sell the concept that the world had been tuning in for thirty years to see one guy. Intense drama or no, Carrey is worth watching. The film moves far too quickly for an audience to question Carrey's reaction, or the situation itself, for very long. It clocks in at about an hour and a half, and by the time it's through, you wonder where the time went. There are still some unanswered questions, but ones that didn't necessarily have to be answered. Sometimes you can ruin a movie by wrapping it up too neatly. Add all this up, and "The Truman Show," the movie, should be as popular as "The Truman Show," the program this summer. -Nick |
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