Review: The Truman Show

Possibly a career best performance for Carrey in a film which explores the nature of reality and the power of the media. Unsurprisingly, the thoughtful warmly funny script is by Niccol (cf GATTACA, In Time), while Weir brings his directorial flourish.

Carrey plays Truman Burbank, a man who has unknowingly been part of a reality TV show, since his birth. Now middle-aged and complete with a Stepford-like wife who has a disturbing habit of posing with products and describing their virtues, he is beginning to wonder if everything is quite as it seems.

We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented, it's as simple as that.

Christof, Creator of The Truman Show 

Ahead of its time on first release, it's fascinating to revisit and see how much of the speculation holds up.

How does it do? Remarkably well in my view.

Reality TV, live streaming etc have in some ways overtaken the ideas in the film.  Elsewhere, the nature of our collective reality is under threat as some influential thinkers, like Elon Musk, believe we are in a highly advanced simulation. Lastly, the distortive power of media is as evident as ever through the recently surfaced phenomenon of fake news, increasing polarisation of political news and social media echo chambers.

In a way, we are all now living our own versions of the Truman Show.

Verdict: Truman's last laugh.