It turns out that Seahaven is really the world’s biggest soundstage – home to a 24-hour television network that has devoted the last 10,909 days to broadcasting every detail, waking or sleeping, of Truman’s life. Actors populate the entire town and there are over 5,000 cameras hidden throughout its sleepy confines. But, here’s the thing…Truman in completely unaware that his whole life has been one big carefully orchestrated lie.

The first person to be adopted by a corporation (Omnicam), Truman has been raised wholly within the borders of both the fictional Seahaven and the reality that has been carefully constructed around him. He only begins to become suspicious as we are introduced to him. A studio light plummets from its unseen height and crashes near Truman as he is getting into his car. On his way into work, Truman’s car radio accidentally picks up directing calls to the legions of extras. His suspicion is further heightened when he stumbles onto the craft service table behind an elevator. Hey, mistakes are bound to happen with a scope this broad.

The beret-coifed puppet-master running the show is named Christof (Ed Harris, Apollo 13). His director’s chair is located high above Seahaven - inside the control room housed within the fake moon hanging high above the fake town. Christof carefully massages the banality of an ordinary man’s actions and makes them interesting enough to be the most watched show on television. Whether he is choreographing extras, carefully selecting the proper music or zooming in for a close up of Truman’s sleeping face, Christof represents all that is evil in our voyeuristic Real World/Road Rules/Rear Window/Body Double society. The very same evil that I would be tuned into every day. But, I digress…

Behind the real scenes, the Aussie double-team of director Peter Weir (The Mosquito Coast) and writer Andrew Niccol (Gattaca) have crafted one of the most pleasantly original and darkly audacious stories in years. The placement of the hidden cameras throughout Seahaven is nothing short of brilliant, leaving me longing for another viewing just to pay attention to their locations. Some offer partially obstructed views and some don’t quite capture their intended target completely. There’s one behind the radio of Truman’s car and one in the shirt button of each actor. And let’s not get started on the wickedly cheesy product placement scenes. They make that Neil Young video seem like kid’s stuff.

Carrey is nothing short of brilliant in what will surely not be an award winning performance. It is simply fascinating to watch him unravel into a super paranoid lunatic as his worst fears are eventually realized. In his most controlled performance to date, Carrey shows that he is more than capable of delivering dialogue through his mouth and not his butt-cheeks. Even better is Ed Harris as the manipulative director, and better yet is Laura Linney (Primal Fear) as Truman’s horrifically insane two-faced wife.

The fictitious people watching The Truman Show, whether from home, work or theme restaurants that revolve around the show, help to illustrate America’s allegedly sick obsession with visual eavesdropping. My only complaint (other than the Natascha McElhone subplot) is the glaring omission of college kids playing drinking games (ala Melrose Place) in their frat houses. You just know that there would be at least ten Truman related binge-drinking deaths every year. But then, to hear about them, you would have to flip from Truman to 20/20. And who’s going to do that?