Truman Movie Review

 Before Watching

    I'd like to think that I actually did see the Truman show before all of this. But I don't remember hearing about the Truman show, but possibly i knew about it in general. 

    What I expected going in is hard to say. Since I am not familiar with this show, i want sure what to really expect or what was in store. All that I knew was that the main character was a guy and the movie seemed to be held in an older time, like early 2000's to late 1900's. With that being said, I also was expecting it to be some type of show of course. maybe they were making a show themselves or something, but when I found out later it was this guy in this secret show I was pretty shocked.

After Watching

    After watching the film, parts that stood out to me a lot was the camera work, the ways the entire show was filmed like when they'd add in these random ad plus or talk very fake as if it WERE a show, the part where Trumans dad suddenly showed up after he was done talking to his friend, and lastly the part towards the end where Truman was trying to escape and the director was using all the dangerous techniques against him to basically force him to stay.

        The reason for these four scenes and as to why I liked them or what stuck out to me was that earlier I was very confused by the camera lens being seen in some of the shots and how the characters acted super fake, like it was an old 90s show with a laugh track. yeah, it was supposed to be sort of fake but it seemed over performed, unrealistic, like plastic. It was almost eerily fake. and with them revealing later on how Truman was in this fake reality, it made so much sense as to why they were showing the lenses in some of the shots and why it seemed overly fake, because it all WAS fake!

 As for the dad scene, it was just as odd. The fact that they basically had no more plot for that scene and used that as like a "distraction" just really showed how much more fake everything was. You could see the confusion on Trumans face as he hugged his dad and saw him, he honestly didn't seem sad anymore because he probably realized at THAT moment that everything was fake or something was wrong. The dad scene just didn't seem authentic at all, very staged.. I know its staged on purpose, but it was VERY staged. And at the end, with the scene of Truman on the boat and trying to make his way towards the real life, I felt the suspense but also not at the same time? It's kind of hard to explain but, I had a feeling he  wouldn't die since you know, he's the main character. So although I felt worried, It didn't hit as hard as I wanted it to hit when he almost died. But the scene was still intense, and it just shows how greedy the director is about Truman. It's also very hypocritical and ironic how the director basically said that if Truman wanted to, he'd leave, But when he DID try to leave, all of a sudden the director is holding him back and basically being the barrier in the way, and ALMOST killing him just to have him stay. Yeah, if I was Truman and the director just tried to kill me THEN asked me to stay because the world outside was "dangerous", I'd leave to.

        What I enjoyed about the film was the girl Sylvia, she was one of my favorite characters. I think her  acting was pretty good; acting in a movie about acting must be hard, but the actress for Truman was amazing to. So I would say the acting was one of my favorite things of this movie because having to pretend that your acting in a movie would probably be pretty difficult, but everyone did an amazing job. But the reason why Sylvia was my favorite character is because I just really liked the mini side story they added with her. You can tell she really wants to be with Truman and was rooting for him the entire time. Even waiting all that time just to see him escape. And now that he's free, she instantly went to him. I really enjoyed how she was played.

At first I was confused with the acting and the camera lens being show. And I also didn't realize that at the beginning of the movie that the thing that fell was a camera. But everyone and the movie cleared that up later on so I'm not confused anymore. there was nothing I really disliked, the movie was great to me!

Not much surprised me when I realized that everything was coming together. Him being in a secret movie was pretty surprising at first. But I guess something that stuck with me for a bit was the fact that Sylvia actually had been watching him the entire time and actually STAYED SINGLE and wanted to be with him after all this time. And it's kind of crazy that Truman was set up with this other girl in the set, and NO ONE wanted him to be with Sylvia. Probably because she would have snitched early on.

Overall Experience

    The way the movie made me feel was invested. I must admit that when we first started playing the movie I was pretty bored, but when we left off on that cliffhanger before Truman had met his dad again, I was eager to see more.

    I can relate to his experience just a little, but only on a surface level. What I mean by that is I'm sure we all had that fear or thought that everything around us has been faked or wasn't real, especially if you eve had a jaw dropping or coincidental experience before. But I never really had many thoughts like that over the age of 10.

    I think the film was trying to depict a low place of someone struggling with being stuck or lost, and even stuck in a pattern where they cant escape. But with time and by pushing through, its still possible to get out of your dark place.

    This is actually one of my first times ACTUALLY thinking deeply about a film. It does feel odd but I don't necessarily hate it. It almost feels like how I'd imagine book club is. You read a book, then share your thoughts and try to pick out different parts of said book and get the deeper meaning, you ask why this character would do something like this or why this scene happened. I look forward to doing more of this.