Film: The Truman Show

Director: Peter Weir
Genre: Drama
Source: USA (1998)
Rating: PG-13
Location/Format: DVD
Grade: A

Was reality tv already this popular in 1998, or were Peter Weir and writer Andrew Niccol just ahead of their time? The story of a man whose world literally falls apart around him is one I love showing to my sophomore literature students as we're studying satire. It's old enough and obscure enough that few of them have seen it, it's compelling and powerful enough that most of them love it. And as satire--of reality tv, of religion, of our own obsessions with pop culture? It just works.

Jim Carrey--while occasionally hamming it up Jim-Carrey-style a bit too much--is here in one of his best roles as Truman Burbank (I mean, even the names in this film are so metaphorically rich), whose life seems perfect: perfect town, perfect friends, perfect wife (well, maybe not so perfect). But as in most utopia/dystopia stories, things are not all they appear to be. When the world around him starts to show some holes--lights falling from the skies, a backstage set where elevators are supposed to be--Truman begins to discover that maybe his life is not what he thinks it is.

There's little not to like here, and it does seem to get better every time I watch it. The film's climax is one of my favorites, and Truman's conversation with Christof in the final moments is poignant and powerful. Our lives, the film reminds us, may get messy and complicated, but at least they are ours. Now we have to step into the dark and make something out of them.

Really, this might be in my top twenty. Definitely top fifty. Gets me every time.