The Truman Show Peter Weir

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Truman Show holds a 94% approval rating based on 162 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, The Truman Show is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives."[52] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[53] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[54]

Giving the film a perfect four star score, Roger Ebert compared it to Forrest Gump, claiming that the film had the right balance of comedy and drama. He was also impressed with Jim Carrey's dramatic performance.[55] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The Truman Show is emotionally involving without losing the ability to raise sharp satiric questions as well as get numerous laughs. The rare film that is disturbing despite working beautifully within standard industry norms."[56] He would name it the best movie of 1998.[57] In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly named Truman one of the 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.[58]

James Berardinelli liked the film's approach of "not being the casual summer blockbuster with special effects", and he likened Carrey's "[charismatic], understated and effective" performance to those of Tom Hanks and James Stewart.[59] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote, "Undeniably provocative and reasonably entertaining, The Truman Show is one of those high-concept movies whose concept is both clever and dumb."[60] Tom Meek of Film Threat said the film was not funny enough but still found "something rewarding in its quirky demeanor".[61]

Accolades