Edtv

It's a shame that due to the timing of when Edtv was released, it was automatically deemed a pitiful copy of the Truman Show, a movie that won our hearts the previous year. Now, I love the Truman Show too, very much, and I'll admit that I was was very uninterested in ever seeing a copy-cat version of it. It was until just a few weeks ago that I actually watched Edtv (even with the expectation that I would most likely not like it too much) and I must say I was pleasantly surprised!

Not only was Edtv funny and entertaining, but it was nearly nothing at all like the Truman Show. I mean, the ONLY similarity is the idea of a live TV show about an "ordinary" guy. But Truman didn't even know he was on TV. He was just living what he thought was an ordinary life. All the cameras and microphones were completely hidden and he lived in a town that was entirely fabricated from his wife and life-long best friend, to the rain and even the sun. His is a story of a man searching for an escape from his everyday life, which little by little he is realizing may not be what it seems. Ed on the other hand was a nobody who was chosen to have a camera crew actually follow him around all day while he went on about his life. His life, and in turn the show, became more about instant celebrity as viewers became enchanted in watching this loser become a mega-star over night. People flocked around him just as much to meet him as to be on TV themselves and he endured some major struggles in keeping his life and relationships normal, which was impossible with his celebrity status and on-camera life.

Both movies had a theme of America's fixation with TV, and more specifically Reality TV, but have different plots and overall themes altogether. I think Edtv was a very enjoyable movie and Mathew McConaughey and Jenna Elfman delivered fantastic performances. Not to mention the mind boggling, and I think underrated, job of editing such an enormous amount of footage. Considering that while the film cameras were rolling, the video cameras were rolling too, and just about all of the video footage you see was actually shot when you see it being shot, I think that Ron Howard did a great job of keeping track of it all and actually making it work. So when someone says, "Well, it was no Truman Show" they are absolutely right. I think it is a great movie that stands on it's own and should stand proud.

Most of the comments here compare EdTV -- flatteringly or unflatteringly -- to The Truman Show. This is a totally invalid comparison in my opinion, unless you intend to compare opposites. EdTV is almost the opposite of The Truman Show. Where The Truman Show was about TV as the ultimate deception (a man is totally shielded from the real world, and his fictionalized life is exposed without his knowledge for the amusement of the masses), EdTV is about TV as the ultimate truth-teller (a man is totally revealed to the real world, and his real life is exposed with his full knowledge for the amusement of the masses). Perhaps they're flip sides of the same coin, but they are definitely flip sides...calling it any kind of imitation of The Truman Show misses the point of the film. Its the antithesis of The Truman Show.

As to quality, it is generally solid if not spectacular. There is a bit of a TV-ish quality to it...it would work just as well as a made-for-TV movie as on the big screen. It also suffers a little from some unbelievable moments showing how Ed can't have a private conversation with anyone without a camera six inches from his face. It's done for effect, but there's no reason the cameras couldn't have gotten the exact same picture from further away by simply zooming in. The performances are all pretty good. I especially liked Jenna Elfman as Ed's suddenly overexposed girlfriend. The screenplay is witty in places, if unremarkable.

All in all, a worthwhile look at an extreme example of the voyeuristic nature of modern entertainment. A good rental. I give it 7 out of 10.

EDtv will inevitably be compared to Peter Weir's The Truman Show but really they haven't much in common. The Truman Show took itself far too seriously. EDtv is a fairly black comedy, a satire on modern TV culture.

The producers of a failing TV network decide to take a punt and try a new format - a real TV doco on an ordinary life.

They audition and choose Ed (Mathew McConaghey), a rangy, slobbish video store worker who's been once or twice bitten in love; the sort of fellow who goes out with a beer mug tied around his neck.

Ed takes on the challenge partly because he's pretty broke and partly because he's bored, urged on by his little hoper, small brained, big muscled brother Ray played by Woody Harrelson. A few days into the shoot Ray throws over his girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman) and Ed wins her as his new lover. Ratings soar!

The talent of the cast (not to mention it's director Ron Howard) lends a great deal of life to Edtv. It's often genuinely funny. McConaughey uses that winning smile to perfection, even as he has an early morning, half asleep fiddle with his genitals. McConaughey is a major reason why EDtv works as well as it does.

Woody Harrelson is a genuinely talented actor and can play a spoilt, selfish meat headed brother perfectly. Some of the best lines have been left to Al the boy's father played by Martin Landau as well as to Ellen DeGeneres as the show's producer.

But it's the character of Ed and his family who really set the neurones firing. Unlike many American films these heroes are ordinary middle Americans, probably about as close as a mainstream American film could get to an English, Ken Loach/Mike Leach, style of middle/working class family. There aren't any chandeliers in Edtv.

It's not often that these sorts of characters are treated warmly in these sorts of films and then we must ask how our own families would fare under this sort of warts and all scrutiny- probably about as well as Ed's.

And it's also interesting to wonder how much the average Aussie would consider EDtv to be a satire given the popularity of Rikki Lake and her ilk, not to mention the Funniest Home Video types of programs. Is real life TV (is there such a thing) already even more outrageous than EDtv? Is EDtv outrageous enough to be satire?

There are some dull minutes in EDtv (mostly to do with Elizabeth Hurley's appearance as a sex pot) but EDtv proves again that Hollywood isn't nearly as dumb as it makes out to be.

True TV launch their new concept – Real Life TV, where cameras will follow one person's life 24/7 and put it all unedited on TV. When Ed is dragged into his brother's audition tape he catches the eye of the studio and he becomes the lucky subject of edtv! However when he falls for Ray's girlfriend Shari things get difficult and he finds that his new found fame is not all it cracked up to be.

Stepping out of the shadow of The Truman Show came another film about reality TV and the nature of fame. However this has little to do with Truman in terms of content, instead it tries to be more of a comedy and tries to mix a little bit of social comment. The story is essentially a romance but it doesn't convince. It doesn't work simply because the whole idea of looking at fame, reality tv and studios is more interesting (even if it doesn't come off). The film promises much but doesn't fully use it's potential – the comedy is never a funny as you hope, the look at fame and TV is never as clever or as deep as you think.

It's a shame that it isn't better because the cast is good on paper. McConaughey is still a rising star (although needs a big hit soon). Harrelson is good as he usually is when in support and Elfman is pretty good as Shari. The support cast is great too – Landau is funny, DeGeneres is good, Reiner is funny and wicked while lesser roles are filled out by the likes of Hurley, Dennis Hopper, Clint Howard. Get past these and you have tonnes of little cameos from the likes of Harry Shearer, Michael Moore, Jay Leno and George Plimpton.

Overall this is enjoyable – it's just that you feel that all of it's parts have potential that are never fully realised. It's OK but you can't help feeling that it's a missed opportunity.

Even though I like most of the players, I really wasn't expecting much from this movie. I wound up surprised by its freshness, wit and thoughtfulness. I feared a poor person's Truman Show, but this film took a lot of the same themes and spun them in different directions. The film lacked Truman's sadness and humanity but made up the difference with more concise and challenging social commentary (not to mention a better supporting cast). Issues of celebrity, entertainment, the media, the information age were all handled in interesting ways. When it needed to be abrasive and shocking, Ed TV took its shots, but it usually remained in a very comfortable and entertaining middle ground. As a viewer, I felt like someone who had spent the previous 15 minutes surfing channels before finally finding a gem worth watching.