USA 1998
Director: Peter Weir Actors: Jim Carrey, Ed Harris
Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) leads a completely normal life, yes one can say he leads a "buffer experience". Truman is married, has a little cottage, a job with an insurance company. What might make him different: The small town he lives in lies on an island that Truman has never left since his childhood, as he has had a phobia in front of water. Truman has been living in this idyll for almost 30 years, but it's not really an idyll: in reality, he is the star of the "Truman Show" and is in a gigantic setting, in the world's largest television studio. Truman is a star without knowing it: since his birth, the producer Christof (Ed Harris) sends nothing more than the actions of Truman Burbank. His neighbours, his friends, all persons of the city are only actors or extras who act strictly according to the direction. Although the everyday life of a normal person may seem boring at first glance, the "Truman show" is a huge success: more than one billion people follow Truman every day as he eats, sleeps, goes to work.... If it should get too boring, Christoph gives the story a "push in the right direction", he has the possibility to do so, because from Truman Burbank's point of view, Christoph gives the story a "push in the right direction". For more than two decades, the involuntary protagonist of a television show never suspected anything. However, as technical breakdowns become more frequent (headlights suddenly fall from the sky, he hears directional interventions on the radio...). Truman notices something's wrong. His doubts are becoming more and more apparent. He entrusts himself to his best friend Marlon (Noah Emmerich) without knowing that he is only an actor acting according to instructions.....
'The Truman Show' is a genius film and undoubtedly one of the highlights of this year's cinema. A fictitious, but imaginable scenario is presented here: The media have gone so far as to bring the entire life of a person onto the' screen'. This not exactly light-weight material was very well adapted by the director. Especially the balancing act between comedy and drama has been a success. While one can still laugh about the one scene, it is immediately brought home to you that such an "entertainment show" is not really funny for the main actor. He's never been badly treated, but he's always being' fooled'. The most intimate conversations are broadcast worldwide and feelings of others are not genuine, but only screenplay-compliant. Truman's a "poor guy." That the film naturally wants to engage in social criticism is unmistakable: Truman is practically a kind of puppet of the film industry. But why? Because several millions of people are fascinated by the broadcast and thus, as it were, justify this action. The conclusion of the film in particular, which often goes into the pants of many films, was skillfully realized by director Peter Weir: Shortly before Truman wanted to leave the golden, but glass cage in the direction of freedom: (Life outside the studio setting), says Christof, who had Truman's entire life in his hands and steered according to his wishes like a kind of God from the sky. The best scene of the movie at the end, that's how it has to be! The good story is also accompanied by a Jim Carrey, who is in the best of hands. Doubts that the grimace comedian of the coarse humor (' Dumm und Dümmer'...) is not suitable for this role quickly dissolve into thin air. With this character role he proves that he is a really good, versatile actor and can not only be placed in the' comedy corner'. How well Carrey plays in this movie proves that he is one of the hottest contenders for an Oscar at the next award ceremony.
In short: Very good story, very good actor, successful implementation: What more do you want? That's the way tragic comedies have to be.
A movie review by Jörn
