Plot:
In the Truman Show, Truman's whole life has been directed, for your viewing pleasure. Since he was born, he was under the eye of the camera, in an entire metropolis constructed specifically for his world. Everyone he knew was an actor, but Truman himself was genuine, which made his reality TV show, The Truman Show, one of a kind. Everything goes according to plan - Kristof's plan, that is - until one day, a beautiful young girl, Sylvia, catches Truman's eye, but not the girl scripted as the love interest, Meryl. In their one night fling, Sylvia tries to reveal to Truman what is really going on, only to be carted off the show right in front of him. For the next decade or so, Truman lives happily ever after with Meryl, but things start to go wrong. First of all, he sees his dad on the street, who had died in an episode when Truman was just a boy. He also picks up radio interference from which he can hear the set crew, and one day he decides to go to a different building and behind the elevator he sees them before they can drag him away. These small infractions instill a deep sense of suspicion within Truman, and he tries everything he can think of to escape, only to be faced with forest fires, staged hazardous waste spills, and a freak storm. Eventually, he ties himself to the boat, encouraging "them" to kill him. When he finds a way out, at the end of the set, Kristof tries to convince him to stay, warning him that people on the outside are monsters, and that Truman's fake world is the greatest truth he can find. Truman makes the decision to exit, with his trademark line "Good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight," and a bow.
Existentialism:
Truman experiences a great crisis when he begins to realize that every day, everything and everyone is exactly the same. He starts to think along the lines of "what if?" There are forces controlling his world, as Kristof plays God, but Truman begins to question God's plan and tries to make a new world for himself, free from this perverse religion. He is completely alone in this world, everyone has lied to him and betrayed him in some manner or another. His wife is in it for the money, every day is planned and to be profited from. When Sylvia is taken away from him and he is alone on the beach, his alienation is complete: there is no one left in his world on his side. Once he realizes how alone he is, he tries to escape the absurd society that imprisons him. Although society may be rooting for him to stay structured within itself, he needs to find a way to live outside these prescribed bounds to truly find himself.
His greatest scene of existentialist thought is on the boat, braving the storm he knows is designed to do nothing but stop his journey. He was willing to face his fears, and brave death in spite of everything working against him, in order to be free on his own terms. This is his absurd courage in the face of death, as well as in the face of the unknown. Upon his decision to exit the set of Seahaven, he is casting in his lot with the dangers of the outside world, but at least he can finally be his own man. He can create a life that is truly for himself, away from the prying eye of his global fanbase. The movie also deeply explores the Hitchcockian theme of voyeurism. The idea that the whole world invests so much time into watching this one man live his life, knowing that the ethics behind it are spotty, shows how much we crave the ability to live vicariously through those actors we see on the screen.
Review:
I enjoyed this movie a lot. Jim Carrey always makes me laugh, and the idea, kind of like the Matrix, is perfect to spark each viewer's imagination, to make me think, "Is any of this real?" My dad remembers thinking along these lines, where he would try to reason through each scenario in his life, and how "they" would pull that off. However, it is not as funny as I had expected it to be, but I think that was necessary: in order to truly empathize with Truman, his life could not be made into too much of a joke. I do have a few questions, however. Was Kristof right? How did Truman adjust to life outside his bubble? Did he find Sylvia? Did Kristof, or the corporation, still "own" Truman, or because he is older than 18 he is no longer bound to his "parents"? Ultimately, is he better off now that he is his own person, and, if not, what does that say about free will? I understand that explaining some of these questions would likely another hour of screen time and the technicalities of it all might bore many of the moviegoers. I think all of these questions could be answered in a sequel, but I suspect that answering these questions would be a touch too dark or serious for a Jim Carrey movie.
