In film and television the camera is often placed as the ideal observer of the action, the ultimate voyeur. Sometimes it becomes the point of view of a particular character. No matter what esthetic imperative is applied to it, the camera must always express society’s view of itself. There seems to be a trend in recent Hollywood films, which examine the role of the media in an artful, cynical or comedic way. The Truman Show manages a delicious balance of all these with an acknowledgment of our fascination with the hidden camera and candid, real life programming.The Truman Show is a film about a simple man who begins to understand that his life and his world are not what they appear. He discovers that he is the star of a 24 hour a day television program, broadcast live to the entire world. His friends and family are actors. Everyone in his community, an enclosed artificial island, are actors.Jim Carrey is perfectly cast as Truman Burbank, adopted at birth by the huge corporation that produces the show, and put on display every moment of his life since. Carrey manages to develop the character of Truman into someone more complex than he first seems. At the beginning Truman feels as artificial as his surroundings. As Truman uncovers more and more evidence of his situation, he comes closer to representing every one of us. He knows that he cannot control the things happening around him, that his life is not real, and his basic humanity requires of him that he find a way out, a way to the ’truth’.
The cast is very ably rounded out by Ed Harris , as Christof the creator of the program, and Laura Linney , as Meryl, Truman’s wife who is of course an actor. Noah Emmerich, also turns in a convincing performance as Marlon, Truman’s best friend, who delivers lines fed to him by remote from Christof, with agonizing sincerity.
Production design is tremendous. The community of Seahaven Island is a delightfully exaggerated suburban middle class setting. The homes, shops and even the clothes of the ’residents’ are suggestive of the 1950’s. The cinematography and editing work in combination to solidify the film’s style, a gentle mix of the hidden camera point of view and the film maker’s own perspective. But the strongest stylistic element is the music. It anticipates our reactions and feeds them subtly. The score enhances rather than dictates the mood of the film.
The construction of the film is clever. With a documentary-style introduction, The Truman Show places the viewer outside from the start. We are never unaware, as Truman is, of what is really going on. So the fascination for us, as it is for the fictional audience, is in watching to see if Truman can deduce the reality of his situation and what his reaction will be.
The Truman Show suggests that freedom is not really what we have in our day to day lives and that freedom is not necessarily what we want. The audience of The Truman Show as depicted in the film, are everyday people with ’normal’ lives. We, the film audience, recognize ourselves in those characters and recognize their need for escape into the fantasy of Truman’s life. Although they might all want Truman to discover the truth and escape his artificial world, they want just as much to witness life through Truman’s eyes. The Truman Show is really the closest they can come to knowing what another person thinks and feels.