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| Directed by Ron Howard; Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Ellen DeGeneres, Woody Harrelson, Martin Landau, Sally Kirkland, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Hurley, Clint Howard, and Adam Goldberg |
I once heard this film called “the poor-man’s The Truman Show” and to tell the truth I can’t find any way to discredit that blurb. First of all, I’m not a fan of Imagine Entertainment (the company owned by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard) and I have yet to forgive them for remaking Psycho last year and making The Chamber (see above). So it could be said that I had low expectations for this film when walking in. And guess what, it was just what I expected. In a kind of October Sky/Patch Adams way, EDtv seems like a crowd pleaser despite the lack of any new material in it and a following of Hollywood comedy formula (for more on formulas see below).
See if the premise sounds slightly familiar. Ed is just a normal guy, normal that is except for the fact that his entire life is shown on television. The difference between this and The Truman Show is that Ed is fully aware that he is being filmed, in fact he signed a contract. We get to watch himself and his family cope with their new found fame.
The only thing that brought the rating higher than the rest of the week’s releases is that it has a respectable cast. While DeGeneres, McConaughey, and Elfman are thoroughly uninteresting in the film, heavyweights like Kirkland, Landau, and even Harrelson make the film watchable at times. Also its cameos are quite enjoyable (Michael Moore, Bill Maher).
One of the films biggest problems is the uninteresting people that it tries to make us think about while they are watching the show, ranging from a middle-class African American family to a Manhattan gay couple. Also the direction from directorial-slacker Howard seems pushed as I couldn’t have cared less about hearing about his brother’s hair plugs and Reiner’s, well, problem. I think that there is something wrong with a film when the biggest laugh in the entire film is how Martin Landau pronounces “a gymnasium.”
