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Right off the bat, I know what you're thinking: how can a lighthearted Ron Howard-directed romantic comedy have been before its time? Surely I could find a better candidate for analysis, n'est pas? Well, maybe, but this column isn't just about great films; there's room here for some that are merely good, and EDtv deserves a second look in the context of the ten years that have passed since its release.

Adapted from a 1994 French-Canadian picture, EDtv concerns itself with a television producer (played by Ellen DeGeneres) who pushes forward with a programming idea to follow a single individual, filming and broadcasting the nuances of his day 24/7. Auditions are held and a charismatic video store clerk named Ed (Matthew McConaughey), whose most endearing pastime is waxing poetic on Smoky and the Bandit, is chosen to star; the program is christened 'EDtv'. Despite his man-crush on Burt Reynolds, Ed becomes romantically drawn to his brother's ex-girlfriend Sheri (Jenna Elfman). Ed and Sheri's relationship hits the rocks as the pressures of fame, and the lack of privacy inherent in having every second of your life under contract to a studio pushes Ed to rebel against those who have made him famous in the first place. Typical romantic comedy hijinks ensue.

The actors are agreeable enough: McConaughey is his typical, appealingly laid back yet not completely dim self, while Jenna Elfman exudes just the right kind of quirkiness (why she's not a bigger star yet is beyond me), and the supporting cast includes Woody Harrelson, Rob Reiner, Dennis Hopper, Martin Landau, and Elizabeth Hurley. Blockbuster cinematographer John Schwartzman (who shot this between Michael Bay epics Armageddon and Pearl Harbor) gives the film a polished, big budget look beyond the means of most rom coms. But what makes EDtv worth revisiting is its oddly prescient subject matter.

Back in 1999 when EDtv hit North American theaters, there was no Survivor, Big Brother, or American Idol, and the conceit of the film seemed patently ridiculous. I remember a conversation I had with some friends while walking out of a screening about how hilarious it would be if people actually did start watching someone go about his daily business as entertainment. We also debated whether or not each of us would agree to star in such a program if asked, and what the magic dollar figure would be to push us over the edge. Well, a few years ago, people began publishing live streams of their day-to-day life with no compensation whatsoever other than a fleeting notion of being famous.

It's not Shakespeare, and it's not even Howard's best movie (Backdraft, Apollo 13, and Cinderella Man would all rank higher on my subjective scale). But it did successfully depict a shift in the nature of televised entertainment that would come to fruition sooner than theatergoers could imagine, while also commenting on the pressures of fame and the inevitability of unintended consequences. EDtv didn't connect with audience sensibilities at the time, earning a mere $22 million domestically to offset a staggering $80 million production budget (how in the hell they managed to spend that kind of money on this movie, with no major-salary actors or blown-up buildings, I'll never know, but I imagine the lunches must've been really good). Lots of reasons could account for this, I suppose: McConaughey was coming off of underperformer The Newton Boys, and the March release date probably didn't help matters much. But what was most likely the reason for EDtv's lackluster reception can be summed up in two words and a definite article: The Truman Show.

Jim Carrey's The Truman Show, directed with almost overwhelming seriousness by Peter Weir, seemed awfully similar to EDtv, at least on a conceptual level. Both films concerned a television show revolving around a man going about his day-to-day life. But Truman was unaware of the cameras, making his discovery much more allegorical and setting the stage for a series of melodramatic revelations. Ed, on the other hand, auditions for the show and initially loves the attention, while the film itself takes its premise far less seriously. As reality TV and celebrity culture have evolved over the past ten years, EDtv seems more closely related to the current reality, while The Truman Show plays more like a cautionary tale about the rights to privacy and self-determination.

Reality television is all about becoming a star. The first season of Survivor may have had a legitimately diverse and eclectic group of participants unprepared for the pop culture phenomenon of which they would become a part, but that didn't last long, and now the cast is made up mostly of beautiful 20-somethings trying to spark an acting career. Same thing with The Apprentice and all the rest. And we've got celebrity versions of all the hits, too, with d-list "stars" pawning what's left of their dignity for another 15 minutes of infamy. Fame, or at least an appearance on the TV, has become "reality", and that's what EDtv foreshadowed better than its creators could've predicted. EDtv is essentially prognosticating the bane that would be TMZ.

It will never be an esteemed edition to The Criterion Collection or a feature topic in an UCLA film class, but EDtv was most certainly given short shrift when it hit the scene ten years ago. Despite its predictable romantic comedy structure, the movie's concept and execution hit on the head a nail of a not-so-distant future truth about the way reality TV would look, and how it would shape our attitudes toward televised entertainment. So, maybe give it another look.