The Truman show (1998) is a movie where in which Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is living a fake life. As he was an unwanted pregnancy he was adopted by the network and raised on set which meant the audience came to love him at a very early age.

He actually lives on a set with all his friends and neighbours as actors and hidden cameras all around the set.

He is oblivious to all of this and thinks that he just lives the perfect life in Seahaven with a boring job tagged along with it. He has been the focus of the TV show since birth and the transmission is live 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

As a child, Truman lost his ‘dad’ at sea in a storm and ever since has believed that his ‘dad’ drowned and is now afraid of water. His ‘dad’ in fact was written out of the script to create drama and to make the audience love Truman even more for his loss.

However one day he sees his dad in the street but no-one believes him so he looks at all his memoires and finds a cardigan left behind by the girl he fell in love with, Lauren (Natascha McElhone). But the show got him to marry another girl called Meryl (Laura Linney).

On finding this cardigan, he remembers that she told him that his life was a fake one and so his suspicions start to arouse.

The director of the show, Christof (Ed Harris) gets the cast to give constant reminders to Truman that Seahaven is paradise and that there is no need to leave and enter the dangers of the world. Truman tries to escape many times after realising that something is wrong and Christof must stop him. To leave Truman must overcome his fear of water which is where his ‘dad’ drowned.

This film brings many emotions such as sadness when we see Truman lose his ‘dad’; anger when Lauren gets taken away from him; laughter when he says his common phrase, “In case I don’t see you later, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight!” and happiness when he overcomes his fear of water.

Jim Carrey is so believable and likeable in this film that you feel sad for him and also cheer him on during the film. He uses humour to his advantage which makes the film even more entertaining than it already is.

Ed Harris is brilliant as the creator of The Truman Show and he portrays a god-like appearance to the movie as he is the one being picky about the cameras, the actors, the scenery and the script. The fact that he has been obsessed with this show for over thirty years, and feels no shame towards trapping Truman in a set, means that he is the villain in this movie.

I definitely recommend this film to anyone who wants a laugh as it is full of humour. I really enjoyed watching this film and I think that Jim Carrey is the perfect actor to play the unsuspecting Truman Burbank. - Lucy Taylor student at Bradon Forest School