EDTV Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Ellen DeGeneres, Woody Harrelson, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Hurley Director: Ron Howard Screenplay: Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 and a half stars
Even though it's been about twenty years since Ron Howard starred in 'Happy Days,' I still giggle after reading the words "a Ron Howard film." There's just something about picturing Ritchie Cunningham directing a Hollywood blockbuster that you can't help but laugh at. Howard's new movie EDtv will inevitably be compared to Peter Weir's film The Truman Show, which has similar themes. But whereas Truman focused on a character who was oblivious to his world-wide fame as a star of his own TV show, the protagonist in EDtv eagerly volunteers himself for a media experiment, only to realize that perhaps it wasn't such a good idea. Howard has proved himself more than capable of handling heavy material after the successes of Apollo 13 and Ransom, but here he doesn't manage to direct with the kind of cynical detachment that made Weir's piece succeed so well.
After two years worth of bad ratings, cable television channel 'True TV' decides to try something different. Headed by program director Cynthia Topping (Ellen DeGeneres), they plan to create a show that follows, for 24 hours a day, the life of an average Joe. Enter Ed Pekurny (Matthew McConaughey), who is the perfect loser they are looking for. Thus, 'EDtv' is born. Sure enough, a camera crew follows Ed everywhere he goes, and it doesn't take long before Ed's life becomes a lot more complicated. Trouble arises when he catches his brother Ray (Woody Harrelson) having an affair on national TV, which leaves Ray's girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman) predictably furious. Shari and Ed are attracted to each other and carve a relationship of their own, whilst Ed's long-lost father Hank (Dennis Hopper) arrives on the scene and causes domestic problems with Ed's flamboyant mother Janette (Sally Kirkland).
If cameras didn't follow Ed everywhere, I'd swear that this was just another average drama. At least that's the way that Howard approaches his material; instead of focusing on the media's influence on society, he merely gives a twist to a typical domestic story. Most frustrating in his direction is his lack of attention to interesting themes. When Ed experiences his fifteen minutes of fame, it's clear that he is no longer an average citizen, and thus 'True TV' loses the very thing that made it so popular - its ability to follow an ordinary, fame-less citizen. But the 'True TV' executives are just as oblivious to this as Howard is. He obviously wanted to keep the film simplistic and able to succeed on its own entertaining merits, thus much intrigue is lost.
Edtv consistently tries to persuade its audience that Ed is a character who deserves to be barracked for. Matthew McConaughey mouths his dialogue with the kind of Southern American simplicity that quickly becomes irritating, and although there is nothing drastically wrong with his performance, the film's script doesn't have the strength to support him. Ed succeeds as a likeable nice guy, but hardly somebody who will have you cheering in the aisles (unlike Truman, who's portrayal by Jim Carrey made him impossible not to like).
EDtv is entertaining and sometimes quite funny - after all, this is A Ron Howard Film. But the media-induced world in which the film's characters revolve in is not the unrelentingly cold world we know. The only time I was truly engaged by EDtv was near its completion, when Ed realizes the horror of being stripped of privacy. This diminishes, of course, into an expected happy ending in which everybody departs the set smiling, but most cinema-goers will leave only with a taste of what could have been. EDtv is largely an ineffective film that is hard to hate but easy to forget. Not bad for entertainment value, but don't look for anything profound in Howard's light-hearted direction.
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia http://infilmau.iah.net
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