The Truman Show ***** (1998, Jim Carrey, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone) – Classic Movie Review 235

Jim Carrey excels himself as Truman Burbank, a pleasant young insurance salesman and adjuster living in an ideal seaside town, in director Peter Weir’s brilliant, impeccably made 1998 fantasy comedy drama film The Truman Show.

He is married to a pretty nurse Meryl (Laura Linney) and has a buddy Marlon (Noah Emmerich) who pops in from time to time with a six-pack. Life is sweet enough but Truman is still not quite happy. He wants to travel, to escape from his perfect life.

What he doesn’t know is that he is the star of the most popular TV show on earth, in which his life is live and everyone else is an actor. One day, Truman begins to notice the artificiality of the life around him, and his curiosity becomes a threat to the show’s creator, Christof (Ed Harris).

With a witty, perceptive screenplay by producer Andrew Niccol, this clever Big Brother-style, reality TV media satire is both delightfully funny and teasingly eerie. It is a memorable gem from the days when Carrey was comedy king.

Also in the cast are Holland Taylor, Natascha McElhone, Brian Delate, Una Damon, Paul Giamatti, Philip Baker Hall, Blair Slater, Ted Raymond, Peter Krause and Judy Clayton.

It premiered in Los Angeles on 1 June 1998, and was released by Paramount Pictures in North America on 5 June 1998.

It was a big hit, taking $125 million at the US box office and grossing $264 million worldwide, against a budget of $60 million.

The film was nominated for three Oscars – Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Ed Harris), Best Director (Peter Weir) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Andrew Niccol), with no wins. That noticeably does not include Carrey, who has never been Oscar nominated.

However, Carrey did win the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. Ed Harris won for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role – Motion Picture and Burkhard von Dallwitz and Philip Glass won for Best Original Score – Motion Picture.

Carrey won the Golden Globe again the next year for Man on the Moon (2000).

He’s had no Bafta awards either, and just the one nomination, for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

Interestingly, he won the 1995 London Critics Circle Film Award for Newcomer of the Year for The Mask and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

The cast are Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, Laura Linney as Hannah Gill, acting as Meryl Burbank, Truman’s wife, Ed Harris as Christof, Noah Emmerich as Louis Coltrane, playing Marlon, Truman’s best friend, Natascha McElhone as Sylvia, playing Lauren Garland, Truman’s college schoolmate, Holland Taylor as Alanis Montclair, playing Angela Montclair, Truman’s mother. Brian Delate as Walter Moore, playing Truman’s father Kirk Burbank, Paul Giamatti as Simeon, the control room director, Una Damon as Chloe, Christof’s control room assistant, Peter Krause as an unnamed actor playing Laurence, Truman’s boss, Harry Shearer as TV talk-show host Mike Michaelson, Philip Baker Hall as the network executive, Joel McKinnon Miller as a garage attendant, and David Andrew Nash as bus driver.

As filmed, The Truman Show is a psychological fantasy comedy drama, but New Zealand screenwriter Andrew Niccol’s original spec script was a sci-fi thriller set in New York City, a one-page film treatment titled The Malcolm Show drafted in May 1991. His idea was: ‘Everyone questions the authenticity of their lives at certain points. It’s like when kids ask if they’re adopted.’

Producer Scott Rudin bought Niccol’s screenplay in autumn 1993 for just over $1 million and set up production as Scott Rudin Productions with Paramount Pictures to distribute, making the film for $60 million, $20 million less than first estimated. Part of the deal had Niccol making his directing debut, though Paramount executives wanted an A-list director, paying Niccol extra money ‘to step aside’. Weir replaced Paramount’s first choice Brian De Palma as director, after being recommended by Niccol.

Although Robin Williams was considered and Gary Oldman did a test, Weir cast Carrey after seeing him in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Niccol rewrote the screenplay while they were waiting for Carrey to agree, signing on for $12 million, instead of his then usual $20 million.

Most of the filming took place at Seaside, Florida, a master-planned new town community in the Florida Panhandle.

Ed Harris replaced Dennis Hopper as Christof when he quit during filming in April 1997 over ‘creative differences’.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 235

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