"Honey, I'm home!!"      

PLEASANTVILLE (PG-13) 

Reviewed October 24, 1998 - Check out The Pleasantville Website.

In the Gary Ross (Big, Dave) written and directed film Pleasantville, 90's teen siblings David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) get mysteriously transported into the black-and-white 50's TV world of Pleasantville...a small, sleepy, Donna Reed kind of town, where Dad always came home from work at 6:30pm, Mom always had a tasty meatloaf in the oven, and the local high school basketball team never lost a game.  It was...ummm...swell.

For David and Jennifer, however, their transplantation into this sanitized, oh-so-swell world is an unwanted shock.  "Look at me, I'm pasty!", screams Jennifer at her new grayscale self.  Worse yet, the siblings discover that they are no longer "David" and "Jennifer," but have taken on the roles of Bud and Mary Sue, the children of perfect TV parents George (William H. Macy) and Betty (Joan Allen) in this artificial world.  Well, as you'd guess, the kids want out.  Now! 

Unfortunately, getting out of Pleasantville isn't that easy.  In a town where all the streets are circular (reaching the end of the road leads you to the beginning of the road) and all the books are blank, nobody seems to have an answer to the question: "What's outside of Pleasantville?"  It is only inevitable, therefore, that David and Jennifer begin to affect changes in this sleepy town.  As Jennifer decides to show the captain of the basketball team what "pinning" really means, and as David breaks the local soda shop owner Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels) of his daily routine, strange things begin to happen in Pleasantville.  People start to ask real questions, they start to show real emotions, and all of a sudden, the black-and-white town begins to show flashes of real color.

In many ways, the strength and effectiveness of Pleasantville derives primarily from this wonderfully conceived and executed interplay between greyscale and full color within the film.  Using this technique of colorizing and de-colorizing specific objects and characters, Gary Ross tells a story that takes full advantage of the film medium, and does so in a way that's true to the story being told.  Running at nearly two hours in length, all this colorplay could have come off as "gimmicky" after a while, but it does not.  Instead, the use of tone and color is extremely creative and powerful in this film, allowing the audience to understand through color so much that is left unsaid as the film progresses.  There's no question here, Pleasantville is a "visual treat" of a film if I ever saw one.

But wait, there's more.  Aside from simply being visually appealing, Pleasantville also has a message to send.  It's a message about breaking down barriers, being who you are, asking questions, and accepting uncertainty.  It's about challenging society's conventions about how things are "supposed to be," and taking a chance on making it better. 

Okay, so it's an ambitious film.  And sometimes its moral is delivered so strongly (particularly in the latter stages of the film) that you wish Gary Ross and company would tone it down a bit.  And okay, the film ends with many, many loose ends left untied.  Still, Pleasantville is a thoroughly creative, entertaining, funny(!!!), well-acted, and thought-provoking film that deserves all the credit it is bound to receive.  If some loose ends are left untied, then so be it...after all, that's how things go in the real world, right?

Responses from cyberspace--thanks for writing!

David Rogers gives this movie  stars: "Can someone tell me how the hell they got into the TV?" (5/6/00)

jessfrogy@prodigy.net gives this movie  stars: "this movie was preety good ,but it had some faults. The story was really good and how they brought color and life to pleasentville.The mix of coor and black and white was really cool,but why and how everything started changing color is kinda unclear to me and the ending was so confusing and yea like your really gonna give up ur really gonna give up ur life to go live in some fictional town." (8/19/99)

action@bridge.net gives this movie  stars: "One comment that no-one makes about the film is how important the character of the pretty cheerleader, Margaret Henderson (Marly Shelton) is. She agrees to be Bud's girlfriend. In the beginning of the movie Bud has no girlfriend, and is a social outcast. She is the one who encourages him to start filling in the blank books, she offers him a red apple and this causes rain to fall. Bud tells Margaret not to be afraid of the rain. It's only rain. It won't hurt you. Later Margaret's ex-boyfriend, Whitey, comes by when Bud gives Margaret a gift, a red umbrella. Whitey does not like Margaret because she is "colored". He scares both Bud and Margaret and drives off. This is a fore-shadowing of what is to come. The "Greys" start to attack the "Coloreds" and destroy Mr. Johnson's soda shop. Whitey and his gang crowd around Bud's Mom, Whitey said "I wonder if she's as pretty as in the picture." Bud shows up just in the nick of time to rescue his Mom. His girlfriend, Maragaret, is not so lucky. Later Bud sees her with her dress and umbrella torn. Margaret is crying. It is obvious that Whitey and his gang attacked her. Margaret was raped. This fact seems to have eluded most movie reviewers. But later Bud and Mr. Johnson draw a mural showing the attack, the burning of books, the flood, and people fleeing an angry crowd. Pleasantville is any- thing but." (12/25/98)

CRose111@aol.com gives this movie  stars: "This movie was a good thinking movie. You should know that otherwise like me you will be looking for some comedy,which obviosly is scarse." (12/14/98)