100 Movies Every Catholic Should See #42: The Truman Show (1998)

Directed by Peter Weir. Starring Jim Carrey.

The Truman Show has a terrifyingly simple concept: what if you were born into a reality show set on an island where all the people you know are actors and all your life had been broadcast live 24/7 to the entire world?

Released a year before The Matrix, many will hold that this is Jim Carrey’s best film, and although I hear Man on the Moon is pretty good I’d have a hard time imagining it topping this one. Carrey is able to lean into his goofy comic sensibilities that established him as one of the box-office kings of the 1990’s while also giving a nuanced and vulnerable performance. Having lived his entire life as the “protagonist” he really is just a big kid, and when he slowly begins to realize that the world around him might not be what he thought it was it’s really haunting to see Carrey’s slow transformation.

In today’s day and age when there is so much blatant misinformation from all of our supposed bastions of knowledge it’s scary to see the parallels between Carrey’s Truman and the many Twitter-indoctrinated youths of today who are living in some crude semblance of Plato’s Cave. The quest that Truman undertakes is as exhilarating to watch for us as the audience as it becomes for the fictional character’s audience of billions around the world, for as the Lord says in Luke 8:17:

For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible, and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.

The film is centered on this very hope that as long as we seek and strive for the Truth eventually we will find it, even in the midst of darkness. The one controlling force that seeks to prevent Truman from discovering the facade of his own life is director and creator of the show Christof, played brilliantly like Ed Harris. Christof sees himself both as the god of Truman’s world: his invisible protector, benefactor, and even perhaps surrogate father. Once Truman begins to start noticing that something is not quite right with his world he begins to use all his powers- including exploiting a fear of the sea he nefariously instilled in Truman as a child when his fake actor father “died” in a boating accident- to stop Truman from finding out the truth. So too does Satan do everything he can to stop those who seek God from finding any happiness, instead promising them comfort from any suffering if they choose to simply indulge all their animalistic desires.

Surrounding Carrey and Harris is an excellent supporting cast, most notably Laura Linney as Truman’s ditzy fake actress “wife” and reliable character actor Noah Emmerich as his actor “best friend”. Weir’s direction is excellent and proves that he can direct comedy very well after his somber but also memorable films Witness and Dead Poets Society. The score is by Burkhard Dallwitz but also features beautiful “in-show” pieces by legendary American composer Phillip Glass, who appears in a cameo playing his piece “Truman Sleeps”.

This is slightly shorter than my usual pieces because I am careful of giving too much away, but after having seen it multiple times in my life I can confirm it is truly one of the great American films! Every time I rewatch it I discover something new. If you haven’t seen it yet I would definitely recommend bumping it up on your watchlist.