The Truman Show is a brilliant look at the reality TV craze, which gives us a wicked commentary on society as a whole. I watch my fair share of reality shows, but that has nothing to do with why I love this movie. I just think it's a brilliant story with fantastic acting and at the time, a new Jim Carrey looking to flex his acting chops having been typecast in comedies up to this point in his career. You can actually hate the Realtiy TV genre (ahem....Mac) and still come away very impressed with this movie on a lot of different levels.

Taking reality out of the equation, the viewer is ask to rationalize what the actors that appear in The Truman Show are doing in order to A) Manipulate Truman any way they can to create a compelling story for the viewer and B) do whatever is possible to keep the show going so that they can continue to get a paycheck for acting on a show. And they do this by any means necessary and that includes lying as much as possible to him. As a viewer, if you have a heart, find this to be pretty repulsive. How can anyone do this to another human being? How can they work with him for 30 years and not have any emotional connections with him? It's pretty sad that the almighty dollar is what drives everyone on the show with no regards for the man himself.

Major props to Jim for his performance here. He is both funny (when need be) and dramatic to get his paranoia across as believable. When I first saw this in the theater, I was impressed with his ability to switch back and forth between the two extremes. But over time, watching this once a year, I am even more impress with his acting skills. Also good was Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Natascha McElhone and Noah Emmerich. This movie just keeps getting better and better for me. The movie is even more relevant today then it was 14 years earlier. How's that for leaving a lasting legacy?  I highly recommend this as a Buy.

It's the same director as Gattaca, right?  I keep thinking now that this dude should be the guy doing the new Twilight Zone movie, or at least one part of it.  It would feel like the show AND a movie at the same time.  Just get another writer in who can help out with the horror/adrenaline for that (nothing wrong with getting some help).

I always dug this movie but along with what you said about having no emotional connection, I kept wondering about all the "dead" time.  He can't just be "on" 14 hours a day (presuming 8 hours asleep), he'd need to relax, have some down time, take a nap, and can you imagine what happened when he hit puberty?  Do they cut to the other people, show their subplots and so on?  What happens in they flub a line, or is that stuff all pre-recorded?  The logistics of the thing really start to break down.

If you start digging into the little corners, it will unravel. I don't think you can dig too much into it. But you need to think about the bigger picture like you have been talking about.

Some label this as sci-fi. It verges on it I guess with the 'new' society and their appetite for voyerism. It all coming very close to reality today isn't it. I never understood the attraction to watching other people do stuff like in soaps or reality, soybean, this movie really didn't connect.

But Chip, I guess you really liked it with 10 stars.