A still from The Truman Show.
What would it feel like to suspect that your whole life was a lie? Actor Jim Carrey famously plays out that scenario in a comedic-dramatic-dystopian-existential tour de force as Truman Burbank, the star of The Truman Show — both the film and the TV show within the film that follows his character’s life on a 24/7 live feed, unbeknownst to him until, well, it isn’t. The 1998 film, screened Tuesday evening, was the first in Best Video Film and Cultural Center’s May screening series, which this month will feature a retrospective of Carrey’s career.
Karen Ponzio Photo.
Karen Ponzio Photo.
First known as a standup comedian who became part of the cast of the sketch comedy TV series In Living Color in the early 1990s, Carrey established himself as a huge box office draw later that decade with a string of comedies that elevated his status to the point that he became the first actor to make $20 million for a film (1996’s The Cable Guy).
According to Best Video staffer Teo Hernandez, Carrey and his films were chosen for a variety of reasons, one being that this year is the 30th anniversary of the year Carrey “broke the system” with three film blockbusters that not only made a ton of money, but became comedy classics. In 1994 he starred in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber (which will be shown next week at Best), becoming one of the biggest stars in the world. The Truman Show won him new fans (and a Golden Globe for Best Actor) as a performer who could conquer drama as well, his character grappling with sadness, fear, and paranoia. Carrey truly shines when, despite all of this, he also conveys a hopefulness that might seem trite in the hands of someone less adept at displaying such a dizzying array of emotions in one character, one the audience wants to root for.
“I feel like everybody likes him,” said Hernandez, noting that he and Best Video’s Raizine Bruton had been wanting to do this retrospective for a while. He also noted that they included 1999’s Man on the Moon, the Andy Kaufman biopic and a more dramatic role for Carrey, because it seems to be the one that “a lot of people want to see but haven’t.” Hernandez himself said he only watched it himself for the first time a month ago, but he loves The Truman Show.
From the chatter of the attendees walking in, buying their drinks, and picking up a tub of free popcorn, it was evident that Tuesday night’s feature was one that many loved. It is hard not to love Truman himself, the character Carrey plays so deftly. Every aspect of his life has been controlled without his knowledge. Every friend he has — his family, coworkers, literally everyone he encounters, from his product placement-focused wife (played with relish by Laura Linney) to the bus driver — is an actor hired to perform their role in his life played out on scenic Seahaven Island.
The film takes the concept of reality television (then in its nascent period) to the nth-terrifying degree. Truman doesn’t know he’s the subject of a show until he’s an adult, when a few glitches in the system set his curiosity ablaze, as well as a thirst for adventure and knowledge that has been simmering all of his life but has been thwarted at every turn by The Creator, a man named Christof (played with more than a little creepiness by Ed Harris), who started the show and makes all of the decisions as to how and where everything and everyone goes, including the weather, the newspaper headlines, and who Truman does and doesn’t talk to.
While there are plenty of laughs, there are also plenty of instances where the viewer feels the gut punches of Truman’s false reality settling in. Director Peter Weir has a way of capturing the existential crisis of his characters as well as finding the horror in the most idyllic of settings (please see his Picnic at Hanging Rock for a prime example of this). You feel as paranoid as Truman even when you know what is going on, and you want to scream at his friends and family members who tell him it’s all okay and to just enjoy where he is, with its manicured lawns and picturesque sunsets.
Levity and empathy come and go in the form of the viewers who have committed large portions of their lives to watching Truman live his, and one in particular — a woman named Lauren who he fell in love with in college, who tries to tell him the truth (played with desire and determination by Natascha McElhorne) — is also the one who drives him to find something more, even when that quest seems like it may finally defeat him. Through it all, Carrey remains front and center, giving the viewer multiple reasons to laugh, to tear up, to get fired up, and to ponder one’s own place in their so called reality.
Lauren wears a pin in the film with a tagline for the show that says “How’s It Going to End?” While I won’t tell you that particular piece of information, I will tell you that 25 years later, with phones that offer us ads for foods we have eaten moments before and apps suggesting songs for our playlists and people to friend, Truman’s eagerness to escape is easy to relate to.
Best Video will show a Jim Carrey film every Tuesday at 7 p.m. during the month of May. Admission is $10 for nonmembers and free for members. Popcorn is free to all. For more information about the films please visit Best Video’s website.