Cinema: Smile! Your Life's On TV

It's The Truman Show, Hollywood's smartest media satire in years--and a breakthrough for Jim Carrey

What a wonderful world Truman Burbank inhabits--a town of pretty houses and smiling people. On Seahaven Island, the streets are spotless, the traffic is orderly, the weather glorious, from seductive dawns (let's get out of bed!) to sunsets worthy of Turner's brush. "Beautiful day, isn't it?" a neighbor asks one predictably fabulous morning, and Truman chirps back, "Always!" He's headed for his honorable job as an insurance salesman, then home to his blond, bedimpled wife Meryl, perhaps off for a late brewski with his best friend, Marlon. You have it all, Truman: good afternoon, good evening and good night! Except for...

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