As this film was released when I was a little girl, I didn't manage to see it and enjoy the film in its entirety - until now. I am glad I returned to this film as an adult as I truly appreciate the message conveyed and realise how relevant even after fifteen years since its release, the subject of intrusive media and life on camera is in the world of today.
The Truman Show focuses on normal everyday guy Truman, played by Jim Carey, who has always wanted to explore, visit other areas of the world but never gets round to it due to his fear of travelling over water. By the time he hits his thirties the urge to leave his routine of a life becomes so intense that as he starts to waver from his daily routine, he notices that his life has been controlled and strings are being pulled in a way he never could have imagined.
Truly ahead of its time, before shows like Big Brother and reality shows regularly documenting people's lives, this film literally creates a world where real life is constructed from the neighbours, to the sky and the moon, with a worldly audience tuning in to see what happens next. It reflects on the intensity of the media filming the everyday movements of people, in this case Truman, even if these aren't particularly interesting. It shows the addiction and fascination of watching 'real-life' unfold, questioning whether observing someone's life on TV is a moral or immoral action.
Truman is unaware that the life around him is constructed and so the creator of his world, played expertly by Ed Harris defends his historical legacy by arguing that Truman himself is real, reacting genuinely to the situations planned for him and so Truman's life is his real life. There is a woman who Truman engaged with briefly as a teenager before being erased from his life purposely by the creator to prevent her from revealing the truth to Truman about his non-reality. The woman argues that Truman is being treated like a caged animal not given the basic human right to be free. Jim Carey shows his versatility as an actor here as he plays the tormented protagonist so persuasively that you feel for his confusion and frustration with the lie surrounding him.
The way in which this follows so closely to life as we now know it, with shows like The Kardashians screening childbirth, marriage, divorce - making decisions based on whether the audience will tune in rather than for your own well-being, is why this film is so effective in its subject matter and message. In a way its great that society is interested in its own people and not brainwashed by fantasy, however this intense focus can effect the life and psyche of the person being documented.
It is an engaging argument the film presents and with the last scene showing a couple of guys watching the final moments of The Truman Show before nonchalantly flicking through the other channels to see what's on, shows how today we have become unfazed by reality TV, we may be engaged when watching it but we are no longer attached which may be a good thing.
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