THE TRUMAN SHOW reviewed by Josh Schirmer === * * * * * out of * * * * *
A movie that's been as highly built up as the Truman Show, with reviews boasting, "The film of the decade!" and "A breakthrough!" can only be leading up to letdown. That's no doubt -- it seems any movie with critical acclaim makes you think you're going in for the ride of your life, that you'll end up changed on the other side, and you come out of the theater going, "Eh... *that's* what all the fuss was about?"
So, naturally, The Truman Show was building up to what was going to be a dissapointment. And I convinced myself, as I nestled into my uncomfortable movie theater chair, actually to TRY not to enjoy it.
Let me tell you, that is an impossibilty.
The Truman Show is truly "the film of the decade" and "a breakthrough" and MORE. And you will come out changed on the other side. Such a movie comes around only once in a lifetime, where you find yourself feeling everything that the character is feeling, and this, friends, is IT. Jim Carrey shows that he doesn't need to talk out of his butt to entertain us; that he can be as dramatic as any of Hollywood's leading men.
The film has a difficult premise to tackle, trying to set us up thirty years into the "Truman Show's" run, but tackle it it does, and perfectly. With flashbacks actually being flashbacks on the television show, you get the sense that you are viewing a *real* prime-time hit. And the way the camera constantly takes the forms it would in the "real" Truman Show is clever and well-done.
People, rejoice! This is the FIRST Oscar-worthy film of not only this year, but of the last five years. Not since "Schindler's List" has a movie captured human spirit and true despair so well. This is a classic in the making, and (to borrow a line from Esquire's review) it stars Jim Carrey. Nothing in his career to date and nothing he can do in the future will ever be able to top his role as Truman Burbank; mark my word. For, as I said, this is the movie of a lifetime and the role is of the same calibre.
Forget special-effect ladden summer fodder. Drop your romantic comedies in the trash. Toss your thrillers and teen flicks on the pile. You need nothing more than "The Truman Show" to carry you through the summer, or for that matter, the year.
Oh! And in case I don't see you, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight.
--Josh Schirmer josh_phile@yahoo.com
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