As a satire this film is superb. The crass commercial
product placements seen in films will always
be viewed with contempt from now on. [ Note
from the future, see Minority
Report, spider-man,
etc] A studio exec apparently wanted
to call a meeting to organise the genuine product
placements in this film. If this is true it
is more amusing and telling than any of the
quips in the movie itself.
The creepy wife was excellent as a surreal and
subtle villainess. But the whole thing for me
was let down by the not untalented "star". The
show needed a touch of darkness to spice it
up a bit, and a bit of believability to the
(phoney) relationships to give the film tension,
but with Carrey all you get is trivial fun.
It spoiled (through no fault of Carrey's but
of the casting) the fascinating premise.
This film was too good to be ruined by a "star".
Why 'stars' can't be exclusively reserved for
films they cannot ruin I do not know, but greed
has something to do with it I suppose. The studio
said something like, "this movie is relatively
intelligent and therefore risky. We need a star
to guarantee making zillions of bucks". This
is the very crass materialism that the film
satirises. I suppose, now I think of it, the
unreal artificial world in the flick could be
an allegory for Hollywood.
On balance this film is a most interesting diversion
and should warn us what the marketers want.
Perhaps its greatest triumph is this: we go
through life as egotistical and self-centred
as hell. And finding out when young(ish) that
the world does not revolve around one is a real
bummer. But a blessing. If the world did actually
exist just for you, imagine!. Wait right there.
I am just going to smash my monitor to see if
a hidden camera is concealed within its glassy
facade.
It
turns out that the joke is not on the Truman
bloke but the producer "Christof". It is Christof
who has been duped into thinking that Truman
is unaware of what is going on, and Truman has
been in on it all along. No more implausible
than the movie but a nice twist, eh?
Or how about this: Christof the
producer stares down on his fake world. The
camera pans out from the dome until the whole
world, Earth, is visible in its white and blue
swirls. Then the camera sweeps and zooms into
the moon looming in the background. On getting
close to the moon we see the Devil! He casts
a wistful eye on our planet and calls the shots.
(He barks commands to marketing men and Hollywood
execs, who execute his work)..
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Heather | Subject: | 2003-04-30 08:33:05 |
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