EDtv
*1/2
Rated on a 4-star
scale
USA
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell
Based on the motion picture "Louis XIX: Roi Les Ondes", written by Emile
Gaudreit and Sylvie Bouchard
CAST.....
Matthew McConaughey.....Ed Pekurny
Jenna Elfman..... Shari
Woody Harrelson..... Ray Pekurny
Ellen DeGeneres..... Cynthia Topping
Sally Kirkland..... Jeanette
Martin Landau..... Al
Rob Reiner..... Whitaker
Dennis Hopper..... Hank
Elizabeth Hurley..... Jill
Adam Goldberg..... John
Clint Howard..... Ken
"EDtv" is not a boring movie, just
a rather stupid one -- the shallow sitcom we expected from "The Truman Show",
and thankfully didn't get. In Peter Weir's amazing 1998 drama the main character
did not know he was on television. Here the hero is aware of the fact and
the film itself is not.
Matthew McConaughey plays the title role, Texas
video store clerk Ed Pekurny, who signs a contract with broadcasting service
TrueTV to appear on air 24 hours a day. This show becomes an unexpected hit,
and the first half of "EDtv" shows Ed enjoying his fame and sorting his fan-mail
into three piles: old ladies, young ladies and psychopaths.
Ed begins a romance with his brother's girlfriend,
Shari (Jenna Elfman), who isn't keen about her new man being constantly on
the box, and refuses to play to his audience. She becomes unpopular, skitted
by the media and the gossiping masses, which distresses Ed, who begins to
question whether the cost of celebrity is really worth it.
But I really didn't care about him. McConaughey
obviously has a twisted idea of how to play a likeable everyman, and Ed is
an obnoxious hick who thinks his droning accent is charming and doesn't mind
being seen scratching his balls for minutes at a time or hanging a beer bottle
around his neck. Elfman is smart and sweet, playing a girl who never forgets
the reality of any situation or gets swept away by fickle rumours. But her
work is, in a way, too good -- I didn't believe this lovely lady would fall
for Ed, or have been associated with his odd circle of friends in the first
place.
The cutaways to TrueTV viewers are equally
unconvincing. A gay couple effeminately bickering; a randy husband trying
to bed his oblivious wife; an executive fidgeting with cigarettes, facial
mask and exercise equipment -- everyone is presented in such goofy positions,
as "EDtv" evades the issue of obsession with television in favour of cheap
sight gags. A backlash is hinted at, but only once or twice, in very token
coverage. Tacky presenters such as Ru Paul and Jay Leno are shown mocking
everything and feeding off miserable scraps of gossip, but there is no real
examination of how hurtful and dangerous these scumbags are. Nor does director
Ron Howard find it sad that people can carry on living their lives as normal,
without any extra reserve, when they're being shown on live
TV.
The basic set-up could indeed be played for laughs
-- "EDtv" just doesn't show us what we'd really want to see. What's onscreen
when Ed is in the bathroom? Having sex? Asleep? Can Ed go into movies with
these cameras following him around? None of these things are dealt
with.
The release of "EDtv" has been delayed for almost
a year -- perhaps Universal Pictures thought that by now we'd have forgotten
about "The Truman Show". But I for one am not about to let the most powerful
film of last year escape my mind. It asked serious questions, questioned
common values and displayed superb craftsmanship. Howard is a great director,
whose "Parenthood" and "Apollo 13" are two of my favourite films. With "EDtv"
he's worked very hard to embarrass himself, with an expensive, technically
complicated waste of time and space.
COPYRIGHT© 1999 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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