EdTV

A movie by Ron Howard

With Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Jenna Elfman, Rob Reiner, Ellen DeGeneres and others

Christina says:

People used to be famous because they were special. Today they are special because they are famous. That could be the motto of yet another movie about the manipulative power of the media. To push the slow ratings of her station Cynthia (Ellen DeGeneres) has a brilliant idea: a regular guy is to be followed by a camera crew for 16 hours a day. Her boss Whittaker (Rob Reiner) is sceptical at first, but when Cynthia presents Ed (Matthew McConaughey), a candidate she found in a blue collar bar, he warms up to the idea. Ed didn’t really want to do it, but his brother Ray (Woody Harrelson), who wanted to be a TV star himself, persuades him that this is their big chance. From now on two cameramen and a sound engineer follow Ed whereever he goes. Not surprisingly Ed enjoys his sudden fame that surpasses all expectations in the beginning, but soon the fuss gets on his nerves. His family’s skeleton’s are dragged out of the closet for everyone to see and the TV audience even wants to pick a girl friend for Ed. When Ed wants to get out of his contract he finds out that is impossible.

EdTV and THE TRUMAN SHOW have a lot in common. Only this hero doesn’t live in an artifically created and orderly middle class world but in real life San Francisco. Ed isn’t particularly successful. He didn’t go to college but has a job in a video store. When asked about his dream he has no answer. Later he dreams about Shari (Jenna Elfman), his brother’s ex-girl-friend. She however is one of the few people unwilling to put up with the ever present cameras. EdTV is like THE TRUMAN SHOW in that the story is mostly told by way of the TV show. Howard, too, uses comments made by the TV audience and on TV discussion panels, but especially the latter aren’t used very well, in spite of the ever popular cameos by RuPaul and Jay Leno. The big showdown between TV boss Whittaker and his victim Ed is rather grotesque and without the mystical component of the final confrontation of Christoph and Truman.

EdTV always remains superficial. Instead of letting Ed and his family develope into three-dimensional characters Howard too often goes for the cheap joke of a camera crew crawling into unusual places. Criticism is rare and brief. The romance of Ed and Shari is getting sappier by the minute and cumulates into an eruption of amateur psychology. Ed’s family is made up of top notch actors. His mother Jeanette is played by Sally Kirkland, Martin Landau is his step-father Al and Dennis Hopper his father Hank. It makes a nice change to see a movie not about successful and cool yuppies but a working class family that has a big load of cholesterol for dinner.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 27/04/03