The Truman Show (1998)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1998
	Director: Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society)
	Actors: Jim Carrey (The Mask, Dumb & Dumber), Ed Harris (Knightriders, A History of Violence), Laura Linney (Mystic River, Mr Holmes)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 11.09.2016, VOD, 32" TV
Synopsis: Truman Bubank (Carrey) is the unknowing star of a bigger-then-life reality-TV show that started with his birth.
Review: I hadn't watched this movie in ages and wanted to see how it had aged. Remember that back in 1998 it was the first movie dealing with reality-TV which was a pretty new phenomenon at the time, while now movies and TV-series are not only mentioning the topic but are even shot in its style. Also remember that it was shortly followed by Ed-TV with Matthew McConaughey which I also like but in a different style more purely comedic. The Truman Show is much more serious than that but not because of a larger scale, and featuring Jim Carrey in his first more serious role. Oh he does make faces and take exaggerated poses but in a serious frame, and he is even very convincing in some emotionally intense dramatic scenes. An excellent actor choice to support the story written by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War, In Time) and to be directed by Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society). The settings look just fake enough to make you doubt their reality, and I would say that almost all of the topics recurrent when talking about reality-TV are tackled here: intimacy, how far to go, how much of the story is driven by the TV-channel, who watches, how and why, and the underlying issue of trying to play God with mortal subjects (beautiful ending scene with Ed Harris' voice). In fact like other great movies, The Truman Show is a perfect combination of actor, story, director, and maybe most important of all timing of release. Watching it with great pleasure 18 years later also shows that it was not just taking benefit from current events only to be quickly forgotten, but that it is part of Cinema History.
Rating: 9 /10