What is the film 'The Truman Show' like?

Question

I want to know because Phillip Glass does a cameo appearance, and does some or all the music. Not keen on Carrey.

This is an English website, so why can't they use the word 'films' rather than 'movies'? Ridiculous.

Answer 1

It's one of my all-time favorites....I love the love story that's at the center of it. Best not to read if you don't want it spoiled for you...


Without spoiling too much (if you don't know the plot), a young woman named Sylvia sneaks her way onto the show and tries to tell Truman that his whole life is being filmed, but she gets carted away before she can tell him the big secret. He spends half of his life pining for her (even though he marries the "scripted" love interest the shows producers provide for him) , and eventually abandons his life and overcomes his deepest fears, driven by the need to find Sylvia again. It reminded me a bit of my own divorce from my first wife, and my quest to track down my first love from way back in high school, and travelling halfway across the country and giving up everything else I held dear just to be with her again....Now we're married, with a beautiful little boy, and that movie still makes me a little misty-eyed each time I watch that show.

I really love the film for the writing -- if you watch it and like it, you might also try "GATTACA", another seriously underrated film also written by Andrew Niccol. The music, as you say, is also very good.

Answer 2

The Truman Show is a fascinating take on the whole Reality T.V. culture that has jumped up and it can make you wonder how far someone might go in to following the life of someone. The script may not be the best, but the performances of all the actors are very good. Along with Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, this is Jim Carrey at his finest. Not being too wild and at times showing real emotion that makes you feel for Truman Burbank and manages to make him feel like he truly is in the dark to his situation. The other actors around him portray their parts in a way that you can feel the insincerity and that they are just playing a part in a Reality T.V. show.

Answer 3

Hi Soleil Noir, thanks for your answer about the phone etiquette. The film "Truman Show" was very funny and says a lot about the culture we live in, where there isn't any privacy and we get voyeuristic pleasure about seeing "reality shows" and living through other people's eyes. Jim Carrey is perfect in this role as a guy who has lived his whole life as a character on tv, only he doesn't know it. Everybody else in the city is a paid actor in the show about him. There are wonderful moments in this movie (sorry, film). Taken at a higher level, it's a statement about "what is reality?" -- it's almost a Buddhist statement about the world we live in being not really what it is. Didn't know that Philip Glass was in it.. I'll have to watch for him next time. The music is great.

Answer 4

It's a Peter Weir film, so I was predisposed to like it. I myself am not keen on Carrey, though I have liked a couple of his movies.

The Truman show is existential science fiction. Rather in the mold of a Philip K. Dick novel, or more infamously the Matrix movies. In it the very nature of perceived reality is questioned. Truman thinks himself a normal man in an everyday world, but is instead the central player in an eleaborate entertainment from which he must ultimately stage his escape or forfeit his sense of personal freedom.

Answer 5

The Truman Show is where this guy played by Jim Carrey, has a normal life with normal people and family, and it turns out that his whole life has been a television show from day one. The creator of the show in the movie is called Christoph and tries almost everything to make sure that Jim never finds out about it.

Answer 6

To answer your primary question, I suggest you rent the video for yourself. If I describe the movie as a rather pedestrian, plaintive attempt at comedy with emotional content, I'm not sure that does much more than deflate your expectations. If I describe it as a witty, clever and iconoclastic commentary on media as the opiate of the masses, I'm not sure that does anything except inflate them.

But to respond to your second observation about "films" rather than "movies", as this is a popular, colloquial website, why do you find it 'ridiculous'? And why not simply provide the moniker, "motion pictures" rather than "films", given the industry's growing acceptance of digital technology?

Best to you, hope you take a look at "Truman" for yourself.

Answer 7

I hadn't a clue this wasn't a US based website. Interesting.

The Truman Show was poignant, a different role than I have seen Carey take on before or since. The story is excellent, a concept piece that was made just as reality television was being tried out.

Answer 8

The Truman Show is a really good film, it really makes you think about the world you live in. Might even make you alittle paranoid.

As for 'movies' used instead of 'film', its becuase a) people all over the world use this site, including USA, and b) English in the Uk is continuosly being 'americanised'. Other examples being used are fries instead of chips, pants instead of trousers and mall instead of shopping centre.

Answer 9

Excellent Movie! Or Film if you prefer. I tend to say flick also.

Don't know who Phillip Glass is, but I enjoyed the flick tremendously. If your not too familiar on the plot, its about a man that lives in the worlds largest sound stage, where they have a massive island, and is on TV 24/7 for his whole life. Everyone around him are actors/actresses. I highly recommend renting it to anyone. It's a good flick.

Answer 10

a guy who's life is a tv show, bit like Big brother in a way. But Truman doesnt no he's being filmed. He was filmed from the day he was born. its ok very different film. Jim carey rocks!