Amazon.com essential video
The whole world is watching--literally--every time Truman Burbank makes the slightest move. Unbeknownst to him, in this hauntingly funny film by Peter Weir, his entire life has been an unending soap opera for consumption by the rest of the world. And everyone he knows--including his mother, his wife, and his best friend--is really an actor, paid to be part of his life. In this intriguing and surprisingly touching 1998 film, writer Andrew Niccol imagines an ultimate kind of celebrity, then sees it brought to life with comic intensity and emotional honesty by Jim Carrey in what may be the performance of his career. Carrey has exceptional support from Laura Linney and Ed Harris, but it's his show, in a portrayal that demonstrates just what kind of range Carrey is capable of.
--Marshall Fine
From The New Yorker
Peter Weir's new movie, his first since the perplexing "Fearless," is an even rarer creature: the sunlit black comedy. Jim Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a genial insurance agent who lives with his chronically nice wife, Meryl (Laura Linney), in the town of Seahaven. The place itself is drowning in pleasantness-no surprise, for it is in fact the largest set ever built. The sky is a dome, the sun and moon are lights in the roof, and every single citizen is an actor-everyone except Truman, who is the innocent star of the most successful documentary soap opera of all time. It's a startling conceit, dreamed up by screenwriter Andrew Niccol, but the picture's doomy warning-that television will overrun our lives and brains-is not exactly original. Still, it picks up pace in the second half, as the hero discovers his predicament and flees; up above, trying to control him, is the omnipotent Christof-the creator of the show, and a great role for the solid and scary Ed Harris. Carrey is on his mettle, but you wonder why thirty years of close observation have made Truman so funny; shouldn't he be a regular guy gone mad? -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006
The New Yorker
See all 463 customer reviews...
