EDtv

In "EDtv",the much-hyped movie about media hype, Director Ron Howard blinks. He gives us a mellow sit-com instead of a biting film about the dread and eerily relevant convergency of media, technology and voyeurism. "The Truman Show" never looked braver or better. "EDtv" is too creepy to be funny.

In "Edtv," the much hyped film about media hype, Director Ron Howard chickens out, ducking the chance to say something powerful and biting about the horrific convergence of media, technology, voyeurism and privacy to make a fluffy comedy instead.

As much braver movies like "the Truman Show" suggest, technology and media increasingly are fusing to create a nightmare tabloid and journalistic culture - Princess Di, Monica and Bill, OJ, the Boston Nanny case -- that obliterates the privacy and dignity of the hapless people unlucky enough to get swept up, even when they're innocent by-standers.

Glued to their screens, the world watches in fascination, seeing the train-wrecks of other people's lives as just another TV show. There's no detail of anybody's life off limits when the cameras converge. Even as it gives us the creeps, we participate.

So here we have Monica Lewinsky. She spills the most intimate details of her and other people's lives to Barbara Walters, apologizes to Chelsea and Hilary for helping to shatter their lives even as she proceeds to make them even more miserable for two more hours in exchange for the cash from foreign TV rights. And tens of millions of Americans send ratings through the roof to watch it.

Techno-driven media like TV is truly becoming a shameless culture. >Anything goes that works, and anybody's life goes right into the maw if enough people want to watch it. That was the point of "The Truman Show," and was the theme of "Edtv."

The ED of "Edtv" (Matthew McConaughey) is a beer-swigging, pool-playing, 31-year-old video store clerk in San Francisco. He agrees to have his entire life broadcast 24/7 on a struggling TV show. The show becomes a smash, of course, especially as Ed slips into crisis, and as Elizabeth Hurley tries to seduce him live on TV. The greedy network moguls rush in to squeeze every last Nielsen rating out of Ed and his problems. In the process, the oblivious Ed very nearly ruins his own life and the lives of the people closest to him, including his brother, mother and stepfather.

There's a lot of potential in this idea, and you get the sense that Howard considered whether or not to go for a real movie about the subject, perhaps one in which there are real and painful consequences. But he blinked, going for a few laughs, a warm fuzzy feeling and a cheesy ending. The movie sets up a fascinating and disturbing premise, then peters out as it fails to deal with it. "The Truman Show" looks brave and powerful in comparison.

Unlike Truman, the affable Ed knows exactly what's happening to him, and agrees to put his live before the rest of the world. Despite all of the trouble this causes, and damage this does to the people around him, he>never shows much remorse or comprehension. When push comes to shove, he and the forces exploiting him slide cheaply off the hook.

"Edtv" is disturbing almost in spite of itself. It makes the point that the very idea of privacy is vanishing in the tabloid, techno-driven world - satellites, talk shows, breathless interviews, book and movie rights. It shows Americans as an increasingly voyeuristic, morally vapid people who will happily watch the disintegration of anybody's lives if it happens on TV live and is produced skillfully enough.

"Edtv" is at its best showing how the country gets increasingly obsessed with the details of Ed's >disintegrating life, and spoofing the TV and talk show culture so quick to >debate and analyze anybody's misery, usually under one hypocritical >pretense >( it isn't about sex but perjury) or another. >

Even though the phenomenon is horrifying, "Edtv" goes for the witty >dialogue over the powerful statement. Ellen DeGeneres, Woody Harrelson, >Jenna Elfman and Rob Reiner all provide strong and funny support for >McConaughey, who seems to be getting his footing back after disasters like >"Amistad" and "Contact." >

The problem is that the issue it takes on is anything but laughable, especially these days. This movie is really too timely, relevant -- and creepy -- to be funny.

You can e-mail me at jonkatz@Slashdot.org