It was 15 years ago when this movie was released so I was only around 10 years old when I saw this film. I liked watching movies from an early age because my mom liked to watch. In times of total boredom brought upon by the absence of popular gaming consoles and cable, we turned to the almighty VHS player for some needed entertainment. I was young and I preferred watching movies of men in tights with capes on their backs. If cartoons and superhero movies weren’t available, my next preference were comedy movies.
Growing up in the 90s, it was impossible to escape Jim Carrey’s growing popularity. His style of comedy was perfect for kids like me who had ADHD like symptoms, just like his usual characters. So when my mom popped ‘The Truman Show’ in the VHS player, I thought it was like Jim’s classics. I was wrong of course, not that I claim that it wasn’t funny, it wasn’t Jim Carrey funny. I was surprised that I liked the movie even though it didn’t have outrageous laugh out loud scenes. The premise alone held my attention and got me thinking if my life was like the Truman show. The movie was ahead of its time where reality TV hasn’t blown up yet. If that movie was made today the plot wouldn’t be too surprising. The idea of people watching an average man live his average life was just crazy, but now our TV sets are filled with honey boo boos and ducks with their dynasties.
Aside from the philosophical implications of the movie, what made it so good are the actors. Jim Carrey successfully established himself as an actor who is capable of serious acting which involved crying (a feat he didn’t do in ‘The Cable Guy’). Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Natashca McElhone, and Holland Taylor were all fantastic. Special mention of course goes to Noah Emmerich who played the role of Louis Coltrane (amalgam of Louis Armstrong and John Coltrane). Coltrane then played the role of Truman’s best friend Marlon.
Now let’s just take a moment to appreciate the genius of Noah Emmerich. Mr. Emmerich was playing an actor who was playing the role of a best friend. Among all the characters, Louie was the most torn apart. He had this secret from his best friend that he was keeping but with a huge emotional revolt in his heart. Louis needed to act, to do his job, but along with it came pain. Remember the scene where he was sitting on the edge of an un-finished road, sipping beer, tears in his eyes, telling Truman that there was no conspiracy. While he was trying his best to control his emotions, Cristof (Ed Harris) was feeding him the lines he needed to say. Although Louis was doing a good job, it was breaking his heart.
Let that sink in for a while and I’m going to look for some VHS tapes. I’m going to see if our old VHS player is still working.
