Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of The Truman Show
Let’s use the classic Jim Carrey film to discuss complexity in your fiction!
Watching Like a Writer is a movie review series that looks at films from the perspective of a fiction writer, complete with one writing takeaway, and an exercise that will help better your fiction!
Review: Twenty years ago today The Truman Show was released to theaters nationwide, and if there’s one thing these past two decades have proven, it’s that this film is just as topical and powerful and entertaining and emotionally resonant as it was in the summer of 1998. The shock of seeing superstar Jim Carrey in something other than a silly comedy is gone, of course, and I feel like now he can truly be seen as a gifted actor, one who was perfectly cast in the role of Truman Burbank.
Once in awhile people ask me what my favorite movies are, and I always include The Truman Show in my top five. And while most of my favorite movies took me months, even years, to really fall head over heels for them during the course of multiple viewings, Peter Weir’s film floored me that opening weekend, when I was merely thirteen years old, and in the ten or more times I’ve watched The Truman Show since, it never fails to amaze me.