The Truman Show (1998)

Director:

Peter Weir

Writer (WGA):

Andrew Niccol (written by)

Release Date:

5 June 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

All the world's a stage...

Plot:

An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a TV show.

Plot Keywords:

Spatial Loop | Boat Accident | Insurance Agent | Simulated Reality | No Opening Credits

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 29 wins & 34 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. May 18	12:00 PM	TNT
Wed. May 21	3:45 PM	SHOW

Cast

Jim Carrey	...	Truman Burbank
Laura Linney	...	Meryl Burbank / Hannah Gill
Noah Emmerich	...	Marlon
Natascha McElhone	...	Lauren / Sylvia
Holland Taylor	...	Truman's Mother
Brian Delate	...	Truman's Father
Blair Slater	...	Young Truman
Peter Krause	...	Lawrence
Heidi Schanz	...	Vivien
Ron Taylor	...	Ron
Don Taylor	...	Don
Ted Raymond	...	Spencer
Judy Clayton	...	Travel Agent
Fritz Dominique	...	Truman's Neighbor
Angel Schmiedt	...	Truman's Neighbor

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements and mild language.

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Philippines:PG-13 | Brazil:Livre (DVD rating) | USA:PG (certificate #34959) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Belgium:KT | Brazil:12 | Chile:TE | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-12/9 | France:U | Germany:12 (bw) | Hong Kong:I | Iceland:L | Ireland:PG | Mexico:A | Netherlands:12 | Peru:PT | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The name of Truman's sailboat is the Santa Maria, the same name as one of Christopher Columbus's ships.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Marlon is restocking the vending machine, he pulls yellow candy bars out of a box to put into the second row, the camera angle changes and when it come back again there was much fewer candy bars in the second row, not to mention they are no longer yellow. They're brown, again the angle changes and when it switches back the bars are again yellow and there are much more of them.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Christof: We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We are tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it's genuine. It's a life.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in The Trumouse Show (2003)

Soundtrack:

Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major (K412)

The Boy In The Bubble

Having been bandied about the release schedules for the best part of a year, Carrey's first semi-dramatic film finally got a UK release last October. He plays Truman Burbank, a vaguely unhappy insurance salesman in the perfect little seaside town of Seahaven. Following some strange occurrences, Truman starts to think that he is being watched. Little does he know that his entire life is secretly filmed, his town is a gigantic sound-stage, everyone he has ever known was an actor and that his every waking and sleeping second is broadcast around the world as a top-rated docu-soap.

Critics have been lavishing enormous praise on this movie since it opened in America last June, and probably rightly so because it is a superbly crafted piece of work. Weir's direction is outstanding, frequently viewing events from the point of view of hidden spy cameras, such as the one in Truman's car radio. One stunning shot has the town's main street full of motionless extras, waiting for Truman to turn the corner. Jim Carrey's performance has been singled out for particular praise, and though his acting is of a much higher standard that his usual comedy antics, it is not exactly Laurence Olivier. This said, an Oscar nomination would have been well deserved.

The setting of a chirpy small town from which escape is impossible echoes cult 60's series The Prisoner, but the balance of reality and poetry is much more restrained here than it was then. The opening credits are especially clever, using those of the actual `show' (e.g. Truman Burbank as Himself). There are, however, a few problems. The film is simply too short to adequately explore Truman's situation, and the character of Meryl, his `wife', disappears about half-an-hour from the end. This kind of slightly sloppy scripting was not something I expected from writer Andrew Niccol, whose previous film Gattaca, which he also directed, was such an immediate classic. Gripes aside, this is an extraordinary and highly original film that really is worth seeing several times to fully understand the director's message. It doesn't even matter if you never liked Jim Carrey before. You will now.