A Forest of Cameras

A man's entire life is lived under constant surveillance in Peter Weir's 1998 film The Truman Show. The logistics of the concept present so many difficulties that Weir had a lot of creative decisions to make, some more successful than others. I saw the movie when it was released and watched it again last night. I find it enjoyable but I feel there's a lot of territory it leaves unexplored.

The concept of a massive dome constructed in Los Angeles for a single television show is certainly far-fetched, as is the fact that this apparently got off the ground without significant push-back in the interest of human rights. Obviously, what is done to Truman is criminal. Christof, the creator of the reality show, makes the excuse that Truman is free to leave any time he wants, though of course the events of the film prove that many obstacles stand in Truman's way of doing just that, not the least of which is that he's carefully kept in ignorance of the fact that his life is an exhibition for the masses.

One of the problems with the film is that it presents a few days in which Truman suddenly becomes aware of how strange his life is. He calls his wife out on her constant plugging of household products to an unseen viewer but, really, if that's all Truman's known all his life, surely he'd be more likely to imitate that behaviour than call it out. That would be just one of the psychological issues of being watched his entire life, a fate society normally reserves for criminals because we all, on an instinctive level, know how degrading and dehumanising such treatment is. Even though Truman isn't consciously aware of it, the nuances of social cues which the human brain adapts itself to as it develops would have been fundamentally damaged through a lifetime of exposure only to actors improvising parts.

Maybe that's part of the theory behind casting Jim Carrey and Carrey's choices in his performance. On the one hand, Carrey's perfect because he can seem superficially normal yet with an undeniable oddness about him. On the other hand, so much of what he does is part of his standard, Jim Carrey comedic persona here. Is he subtly encouraged somehow to be funnier, to come up with catch phrases?

I found Laura Linney's performance as Carrey's wife a little more interesting. You sympathise with her for having to sacrifice her life for this lie but also kind of despise her for her part in perpetuating it. She's manipulating Truman entirely for personal profit. Christof may be the top of the chain here but her hands are certainly the dirtiest.

The Truman Show is available on The Criterion Channel this month as part of a playlist of cinema about surveillance.