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The Truman Show: There's plenty to admire in Peter Weir's The Truman Show. It may not be entirely original -- actor/filmmaker Paul Bartel (Deathrace 2000, Eating Raoul) made it in 1967 as The Secret Cinema -- but at least it's not a movie that you just saw last week. And the week before that. And the week before that... The production design is wonderfully clever, and the supporting cast is enormous fun to watch -- particularly Ed Harris as the egomaniacal TV "genius" who conceived the show, and Laura Linney as the protagonist's actress/wife. But Jim Carrey swamps the whole enterprise. Why, oh why, would you make a movie based on the idea of a man who doesn't know that there are cameras on him all the time -- and then cast an actor who always performs as if there are cameras on him all the time? It's not quite Ace Ventura, but Carrey mugs to the camera throughout the movie -- not to his character's TV audience, but to the actor's movie audience. It destroys the delicate illusion of the movie (wipes out the whole conceit, in fact), and it's a shame. |
