Under a cheerfully sunny sky that only heightens the paranoia, it's brilliant in conception and execution, with dozens of bright touches -- verbal jokes, visual jokes, spooky looks.
As inventive and creative as Weir's staging is, The Truman Show wouldn't work without credible Truman. And Carrey carries off the tricky role with a chipperness that belies a deep-seeded longing for more in life than surface perfection.
The Truman Show will probably be the most thought-provoking "big" movie to come out this summer, and that says a whole lot more about other movies than it does about this one. You should, however, see it for Carrey's newly unveiled charms.
Director Peter Weir has created a strikingly subversive piece of information-age paranoia as visionary as anything Hollywood might manufacture this summer, or this decade.
The Truman Show finds a near-miraculous balance of humor and feeling in the keen intelligence of the script by Andrew Niccol and the prodigal inventiveness of Dead Poets Society director Peter Weir at his very best.
To be sure, the movie has plenty of laughs, but like sunlight on the deceptively calm surface of the sea, its light humor dances fitfully over dark and dangerous undercurrents.
Peter Weir's film is so cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed that it almost seems like a fresh thought. And even if it doesn't, it nevertheless forms the basis of a very witty exercise.
