Section B·Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Wednesday, June 10, 1998
Commentary
Jim Carney changes the pace with his new role as Truman Burbank in *The Truman Show*, a light-hearted character trapped in the made up world of a 24-hour television show. Photo courtesy of Pamounts picture/copyright 1998
Truman Show may be closer than it appears
By Jeremy M. Doherty jdoherty@kansan.com Kansan movie critic
As a portrait of the forces that feed our TV-dominated, fast-food culture, Peter Weir's The Truman Show could not be more timely.
Like a less hyper version of Natural Born Killers, Weir's insightful satire skewers our media-dominated world, providing a glimpse of the forces that feed the beast.
Jim Carrey's portrayal of Truman Burbank, a lighthearted fellow who is the unknowing subject of a 24-hour live TV show, is frightening in a way that recalls the pseudo-realism of Dr. Strangelove. Anyone who has sat through countless hours of O.J. Simpson news or MTV's The Real World will know that Truman's fishbowl world is not far removed from our own.
In a remarkable change of pace, Carrey nearly abandons his traditional grab bag of rubber faces to play the likable Truman. He lives in Seahaven, a water-bordered town perpetually locked into a David Lynch-inspired vision of the '50s.
Truman's wife Meryl (Laura Linney) channels June Cleaver, singing the praises of slicerdicers and cocoa mixes.
Similarly, his buddy Marlon (Noah Emmerich) pauses during their nightly guy-bonding to advocate a particular brand of beer.
Everything and everyone in Seahaven has been carefully orchestrated by Christof (Ed Harris), an acclaimed televisionary. Christof adopted Truman from the womb and has been filming every moment of his life with more than 5,000 miniature cameras placed inside clothing buttons and household appliances. Truman's friends, co-workers and family members are only actors performing a non-stop improvisation act.
For much of The Truman Show, Weir and screenwriter Andrew Niccol avoid any strict plot, cutting back and forth between Truman's cookie-cutter life. Christof's control of that life and the brainwashed masses who happily devour it.
Everything changes when Truman spots his deceased "father" quite alive and wandering around city streets. Studio flood lights plummet from the cloudless blue skies, and Truman observes Christof's stage grips moving furniture behind cardboard sets.
THE TRUMAN SHOW
Kansan Rating: **1/2 out of **** (three and one-half stars out of four)
Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
In response, Christof launches damage control. Convinced that his artificial world serves Truman better than the harsh realities outside, the producer seizes upon his star's insecurities to quash a possible escape attempt.
Rated PG for adult themes and mild language
Although the conflict between Truman and Christof drives the movie, Weir's treatment of viewing audiences sticks. Showing how years of vicious living have muted the outrage they should feel at Truman's exploitation, Weir repeatedly returns to those who watch Truman's adventures as though it were Monday Night Football.
It is a bleak statement for Weir to make. But in an age in which tabloid shows and 24-hour news channels have risen to the top of the culture, it cannot be ignored.
Commentary
Murder not quite perfect
Thriller update fails to deliver with new cast
By Jeremy M. Doherty jdoherty@kansan.com Kansan movie critic
Alfred Hitchcock made many great thrillers, but Dial M for Murder was not among them.
Although clever, and despite Ray Milland's beautiful slimy turn as the husband who plots to kill his unfaithful wife, Hitchcock never injected the movie with the right amount of creepy other-worldliness that marked stronger offerings such as Vertigo and Rear Window. The makers of A Perfect Murder, then, had their work cut out for them. An update of Hitchcock's 1954 entry, it scores points in casting Michael Douglas in the Milland role and snagging Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) to fill the director's seat. Davis skillfully casts his version in the cold, neo-noir tones found in contemporary thrillers such as Seven and The Usual Suspects.
Michael Douglas is the highlight of his new film *A Perfect Murder*. Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers/copyright 1998
The plot is essentially identical to that of the original. In both, a well-to-do husband discovers that his wife (Grace Kelly in 1954, Gwyneth Paltrow today) has been unfaithful. His solution is to hire some schmo to kill her while he is away playing poker at a gentlemen's club, neatly providing him with an alibi.
What stops this remake dead in its tracks is an uneven tone and surprisingly shallow characters. The script, by first-timer Patrick Smith Kelly, routinely gives the characters rambling, only-in-the-movies monologues in which they recount their sorrowful life stories. Even folks who have not seen Hitchcock's movie should have no trouble guessing that Taylor's murderous plan will veer off course.
In an inventive twist, Douglas' Steven Taylor decides to recruit his wife's lover (Viggo Mortensen) to do the deed for $500,000. As it turns out, this other man, while on the surface a mild mannered artist, is actually an ex-con who specialized in extorting money from rich old ladies. Once the wife is out of the picture, Taylor, whose own financial empire stands on the verge of collapse, stands to inherit $100 million of her family's cash.
However, watching Douglas play another greedy, rich white guy is almost worth the price of admission. He owns this cinematic persona much like Robert De Niro owns the psychopath market. That being said, he does not do anything that we have not seen already in better, smarter films such as The Game and his Oscar-winning Wall Street.
Also of note is Mortensen's gradually eerie presence in the film. The actor, whose sinister Navy Seal was the sole reason for sitting through Demi Moore's laughable G.I. Jane, finds the perfect rhythm
A PERFECT MURDER
Kansan Rating:** ** out of *****
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
Rated R for language, violence and sexuality
here for a soulless character who would kill his lover for money.
In the end, the film's success lies in Davis's ability to one-up the Master of Suspense. He fails. Davis's movie lacks bite, which is odd considering that The Fugitive had so successfully evoked an ominous "Hitchcockian" atmosphere. In a thriller supposedly about unseen horrors lying underneath the surface, that is a component we cannot do without.
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