Once again, you can blame substitute teaching for this one. I was substitute teaching today, and the lesson plan was to resume playing this movie. The students had already seen the first 12 minutes yesterday, so I played it from 12 minutes to the 48 minute marker. And I had to do this 4 times in 4 classes today, so by the end of the day I was well acquainted with those 40 minutes.
This is a movie I've already seen. (I saw it in the theaters when it originally came out.) So it was another rewatch, or half-rewatch.
Although I didn't rewatch the whole thing (I missed the first 12 minutes, and the whole second half of the movie), it did strike me that the movie is operating on a few different levels.
1) It's a philosophical movie--the old "What if our reality was just a simulation?" hypothetical
2) It's a commentary on reality TV
3) It's a comedy
4) It's a suspense movie--as Truman keeps trying to escape his reality, and as he keeps getting thwarted, you get sucked into the suspense of "Will he be able to get out this time?"
It works realitively well on all of these levels. The suspense scenes work great. The humor is good.
It is, however, a bit repetitive, especially in the beginning. The first 50 minutes of the movie are essentially Truman discovering that his reality is manufactured. And then discovering it again. And then discovering it again. (He seems to realize fairly early on in the movie what is going on, but then the movie just has scene after scene of him rediscovering this.)
The movie is also completely unrealistic, even if you grant its premise. (Even if you grant that society would tolerate a TV show making a prisoner of someone like this, and even if you grant that the show has the budget to do all the things that they do, there were still a lot of scenes were I didn't believe that this is a realistic portrayal of how people would actually act in this situation.) So as you're watching this movie, you have to constantly shut down that voice in your head that keeps saying, "But real people wouldn't act like that."
This was one of Jim Carrey's first serious roles, and he plays it mostly well, but he's still a little bit over the top in some scenes. Would this movie have been better served with a different lead actor?
It also occured to me (on the 3rd time watching) that this movie might also be operating as a commentary about how difficult it is sometimes to escape from your hometown and get out into the wider world.
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3 comments:
I wouldn't want anybody else to make this movie more serious than it should be ToT. Jim Carrey is a good fit for a whimsical movie. Maybe Jack Nicholson lol?
Maybe I should stay in my lane but this movie brings back memories, not just because it was good but also because of IRL stuff I had - having a cold and... an entire week not coming to school (parents didn't know).
>It also occured to me (on the 3rd time watching) that this movie might also be operating as a commentary about how difficult it is sometimes to escape from your hometown and get out into the wider world.
Now you mention this, I guess it could be, didn't see it this way.
Maybe Truman could have changed his mind if him getting to outside world was also planned lol - sticking to the hometown might well be preferable if you are even dictated what you have to do in the larger world already.
I sure would love to be in his shoe and live in the manifactured world forever - if I have to live in a world that makes you feel numb and senseless due to how out of place you are, I still prefer to live in one without constant put downs and insults.
I think Jim Carrey was generally a good fit for this movie. The whimsical Jim Carry is okay, and for the most part, that's what we get. I don't think the "shouty" Jim Carrey works as well--see this scene here for an example: https://youtu.be/OXw7LN1BeDE?si=elv2qgKKeRxF8eJT
...but that could just be my personal preference.
One thing I did notice when rewatching this movie is that the plot of the movie gives Jim Carrey's character pleenty of motivation to want to escape his reality: he's got someone he's in love with, who the producers have stolen away from him. He's realizing his father is not dead, but again the producers have stolen his father from him, and he's realizing his wife is not in love with him. They're really giving him tons of motivation to want to escape his reality--maybe it's a bit too much, but I guess it's at this point that the movie changes from being a philosophical thought experiment about living in a manufactured reality, and becomes a suspense thriller about trying to escape from the island--because at this point the writers have definitely put their hands on the scales, and pretty much made the decision obvious for Truman.
Perhaps though, a more interesting movie, or at least a more thoughtful movie, would have balanced the pros and cons of this manufactured reality. As you suggest.
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