Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey) is a seemingly ordinary guy with an ordinary life until one day he realizes everyone is lying to him. He is living in a virtual reality where everyone acts to him - he is the star of his own TV show 24/7 but doesn't know it. Even his wife talks to him in adspeak soundbites...

Then, one day, his car radio seemingly gives him a commentary on where he is going and he realizes what is going on (that moment in front of the bus will send shivers down your spine).

"The first Jim Carrey movie in which he doesn't try to bring his lower teeth above his nose! A triumph!

"A masterpiece of satire-reality vision."

"Has a horrible claustrophobic feel about it. Thank goodness they didn't try selling fake doggie poo."

"I have just realized that I am Truman, are you listening to me out there?"

"Your worst nightmare but with nice weather."

"Where can I get me such a nice house in the suburbs? I am completely prepared to submit myself to a life of passive consumerism if life is that good."

"Not one to watch if you have a water phobia."

A college girlfriend, who loves Truman, gets him alone on a beach someplace and tells him it is all a lie. She is whipped away from him, her apparent father saying they are moving to Fiji. He remembers this through his life (he's now 29 - or day 10,909 of his show...)

One day he sees his Dad in the streets as a bum - he allegedly died in a boating accident (this is a device used to keep Truman from wanting to investigate the outside world, by making him scared of the ocean).

Truman eventually starts to realize how everyone talks to him in advertising speak, his wife leaves him after he threatens to attack her.

He has made a collage of the face of the girlfriend he met at college and he gets into a boat and goes to the end of the world... which is a sound stage... Here he leaves the world he has known to join real reality... There's not a dry leg in the house.

This is one of those once in a while movies that really blows your skirt up with gusto. A monumental triumph of 'could it really happen-ness', indeed, no doubt some person with paranoidal tenancies somewhere had seizures believing he is the new Truman.

The lengths to which people will go to get on television has always amazed me. I, for one, have bungey-jumped naked more than once in my attempt.

To summarize: A marvelous movie to watch once, the second time around I got very frustrated at how unlikely it is. And to those who asked: No, it couldn't happen in reality.

Pumpernickel pie. (No idea where that came from.)

In the Mr Angry position.

On one level this movie is the most evil movie since the Exorcist, but with better on-screen merchandising, and no vomit, on another it is just the tale of an ordinary schmuck who believes everything everyone tells him.

During that moment when he realizes everything is a fraud, is this how people who hear voices see the world all the while?

Could you prove the world is not like this? Where can I get a ticket to Fiji. Can I have a house like that please. Aaargh!

Kids and teens all like Jim Carrey, as do both pet dogs and cats. It is a rare quality in a performer to be appreciated by both cats and dogs like that.

This really is an all the family movie, unless you have any members of your family who hear voices or believe they are the center of the universe.

Warning: This movie could scare the mentally doo-lally - we know this isn't a scientific phrase but it is the best phrase we could come up with at such short notice.

Never trust anyone, ever. Those around you are all lying to you and the only person who has ever told you the truth was that person you met on holiday once who kept looking off into the middle distance as if someone was about to grab her from behind.

Always get a job within walking distance of your home and never cross Oceans for fear of hitting the end of the world.

7 minutes.

A favorite sex toy - just imagine, that every time you have used it in the past, it has been on the front page of a tabloid somewhere, doh-oooops...

So, your life is a phony, everyone is lying to you in your nice suburban house, even your nicely conservative suburban wife... You have conformed all your life, for what?

Babe, this movie is truly awesome on a 'let's build barricades on the streets' level, even though the problem is television is everywhere so a barricade would be useless...

One of those water cooler movies that everyone was talking about when it came out. With the reality TV boom just starting it painted a disturbing picture. Then we all got on with our lives again, addicted to Survivor, Big Brother and Fame Academy.

An important movie, perhaps not one you will want to watch over and over, but one that you will be glad you have seen. The bit when he stops the bus, after realizing everything is there for his benefit alone, will send shivers down your spine - if it doesn't ask them for a new spine.

March 8, 2003