EDtv (1999)
Director: Ron Howard Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Ellen DeGeneres, Woody Harrelson, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Hurley Screenplay: Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard Runtime: 123 min. US Distribution: Universal Rated PG-13: sex, partial nudity, language
Copyright 1998 Nathaniel R. Atcheson
EDtv is a satire so bland and toothless that I had trouble figuring out the target of its criticism. It's not a bad film -- it's elevated by a few excellent performances, and there are several funny moments. But EDtv wants to be a satire at the core, and it just isn't effective. And with The Truman Show still strong in our memories, it's hard to imagine another film on the same subject that measures up in any way. Perhaps I would have been easier on EDtv had it come out before Truman, but it didn't, and I won't.
Ron Howard has made some good movies, and I can see how he thought this one was going to be something special. The film begins with Rob Reiner as the president of a cable TV station; we see him telling a group of reporters that they're planning a new kind of television show -- "True TV." He brings in the programming director, Cynthia Topping (Ellen DeGeneres), to give the details of the show: they're going to have cameras on some average guy, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Uncut. Unscripted. Commercial-free. And they think everyone will watch.
The lucky man is Ed Pekurny, played by the affable Matthew McConaughey. Ed is a video store clerk of moderate intelligence, but he's a pretty nice guy overall. His family is more colorful than he is, though: his mother (Sally Kirkland) is an unstable, superficial woman who somehow manages to be likable. Her husband, Al (Martin Landau), is Ed's stepfather, and he's bound to a wheelchair. Ed's brother is Ray (Woody Harrelson), a hot-blooded moron. Ray is dating Shari (Jenna Elfman); Ray isn't very nice to her, and so Shari and Ed end up getting together.
One of the several conflicts is pretty obvious without even seeing the film -- Ed is first going to soak up the fame, just before realizing that he hates it and wants his private life back. There's going to be a big problem with Shari. And, naturally, the Evil Corporation won't let him out of the show due to some ridiculous fine print on a contract he signed. If EDtv had defied my expectations by creating a more interesting conflict, it would have been a better film. But the overall story is tedious and unimpressive, and so the individual moments that work are forced to stand alone.
Here's a note to all film makers planning to make a film that satirizes the television industry: we know that the media intrudes on our private lives. We know that they're all just a bunch of money-grubbing jerks. We know that Fame is a double-edged sword. If you're going to make a movie that tries to tell us these things, you need to be vicious (see Network) or artistically sublime (see The Truman Show). Howard seems way too concerned with the human story to actually put any bite into the satire, and so the film's focus is skewed. The human story is too goofy to be truly engaging, and the Rob Reiner character is too unbelievably mean to avoid looking like a cartoon (thus thwarting the satire).
But the film is not without its pleasures, most of them lying in the performances . Ellen DeGeneres is a wonderful comedic presence, and squeezes laughs out of every scene (especially the one in which she resigns from the station). Jenna Elfman is utterly believable and sympathetic as Shari, and I just want to hug her whenever she's on screen. Landau is also wonderful as the stepfather Al, and Kirkland does a good job by his side. And McConaughey, while he's no Harrison Ford, makes a good, amiable protagonist.
But EDtv ultimately whimpers to a close. One of the film's themes, I think, is that our lives are all worthy of soap opera-status. But the story in EDtv is too goofy and complex to take seriously, even though it's clear that Howard wants us to take it seriously by the end. And the satire doesn't work because it never reaches an acceptable level of bitterness. In the end, EDtv is just another mediocre swing at greatness. You might find it enjoyable while it's running, but a week later you probably won't even remember its name, let alone the target of its ridicule.
Psychosis Rating: 5/10
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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