Review of The Truman Show (1998) by Sin S — 30 Sep 2017

The Truman Show is one of the best psychological thrillers because of its concept, choice of actors, filming and script. As I watched this movie I was blown away by how interesting it actually was. I find psychology incredibly interesting so this movie was great to me. The entire concept of this movie is about a man, Truman, who has spent his whole life growing up on a "movie set". His parents aren't his real parents, his lovers aren't his real lovers and his house isn't his own house. Yet, he has no idea that these people around him are all actresses and he's living in a fake world. The real outside world is watching through hidden cameras placed everywhere on this movie set that he calls his life. His entire life, Truman is being watched 24/7 and the outside world watches him as a reality TV show. Every move he makes, every emotion he feels and everything he sees and experiences is purely for the outside world's entertainment. The reason he was placed in this fake world, purely for entertainment, was because he was chosen from an unwanted pregnancy. There were six unwanted pregnancies and he was the first born, so he was the first chosen by the corporation producing the Truman Show.

I really enjoyed watching Jim Carrey play Truman because as Truman began to experience signs that he was living in this fake world, it kind of turned into comedy. I love watching Jim Carrey because he never fails to make people laugh. He's done a ton of comedies including Dumb and Dumber, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and many others. Carrey accepted this role even though he was getting paid 8 million less than what he usually gets paid for films. I'm glad he did though because I can't imagine the movie with anyone other than him playing the face of Truman. Jim Carrey tends to do a lot of improvising on set, which is exactly what he did during this movie. He didn't agree with some of the parts of the scripts and he would change things he did and said last minute as they were filming.

Obviously as I was watching this movie I couldn't help but notice how it was filmed. I really enjoyed how this film other than the fact that it takes a while to understand what is going on in the movie. Many people may get half way through the movie and finally come to the realization that his whole life is being filmed as a reality tv show. However, it's also really intriguing how it is filmed. It's filmed in the perspective of hidden cameras. The angles are different than "normal" movies and a corporation logo appears in the corner of the screen in most scenes of the movie. This really showed how he was being filmed without him knowing. It gave the movie more of a reality tv show feeling than a formal movie which makes situations that happen more shocking.

The script is very well written in my opinion because it makes you feel every core emotion. You laugh, you feel sad for him, you get angry at how they treat him and you feel excited for him. As the movie starts out he has no idea he's being filmed, however as the movie goes on he begins to realize and pick up on peculiar things that are happening to him. Characters in the movie start to feel sorry for him and try and warn him that he's being played. He starts to pick up on all these clues and try to figure out how he can overcome his fear of the water to potentially escape. The only way out of this TV set is to escape past the water, but unfortunately for him he has developed a strong fear for water. When he was younger, his "father" died in the water so he's never tried to travel past it. This was their way of putting fear in his head so he would never want to escape this tv set if he ever found out about what was going on. He eventually has the courage to get through the water on a boat which leads him to the door to exit the TV set.

This movie provided such a thrill factor that I haven't seen in many other movies before. Watching him experience his situations and get past them is exactly why I believe it is one of the best psychological thrillers that exists.