What’s interesting is as you watch it, or rewatch even, it becomes more and more obvious how “not right” it all is. Initially you think it’s this seamless if pretend world. But then you realise it’s actually kind of shoddy and sometimes dumb. Not the details, but the whole concept of treating it like a big TV show with extras. The things they try the hardest on are actually the most fake.

For example the bit where he is counting the passers by on a loop. It’s not even specifics that they’ve messed up. It’s that the whole methodology of that is a bad idea. And why are they even bothering? They don’t need that level of constant traffic. They should really just have the traffic just be the neighbours coming home or going to the store. It could just be a quiet suburban street. A cul-de-sac even. But they feel the need to over-do it, ironically making it seem less real.

What they have done is build a big expensive film set based on a small town. What they should have done is try to build a small town, albeit one where people are paid to be there.

I like when he notices his wife talking about stuff in a weird, unnatural way, because she's actually doing product placement.. "Who are you talking to!?"

Yeah there were so many. The big one where he finally really gets it when the radio is following him driving so he gets out and walks in the street is great.

I love how it also sort of feels like it should be a horror movie like Invasion of the Body snatchers but it's quite the opposite

Not sure I agree on this one. When the movie came out, all the trailers, adverts and posters made it clear he was on a show (as if the title wasn't enough of a giveaway), and i think that was a major mistake given Carrey's box office draw at the time.

The movie acts on the premise that you know what's coming, and the entertainment comes from watching nonthewiser Carrey navigate this world you know he's in. You're watching a rat find his way out of a maze they built and the audience put him in.

Imagine if the TWIST was that he's on a TV show, rather than that being the setup to begin with. Some minor changes and you could have turned a comedy where you're watching a man finding out he's on a show into a thriller where the audience is finding out the man's on a show at the same time he's working it out. The final reveal would be when he hits the wall in the boat. Then you cut in all the external shots, introduce Ed Harris, etc.

At the time, audiences only knew Carrey as a goofy comedic actor, and the movie plays to those tropes. Hindsight (eternal sunshine especially) shows us he could have pulled something quite dramatic off. Would have been an exceptional subversion of all expectations.

This was such big missed opportunity in that they clue in the audience before Truman himself figures it out.

It would have been better if Truman and the audience learned together.

This was such big missed opportunity in that they clue in the audience before Truman himself figures it out.

It would have been better if Truman and the audience learned together.