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Pleasantville - New Line Platinum Series Customer Reviews (40 - 42 of 52 Reviews)

Amazing movie with many allegorical themes
The story at first seems to be a satire on the TV sanitation of the 1950's but this film is much richer and runs much deeper than that. In a comedic and satirical manner it addresses such issues as love, marriage, personal identity and the importance of knowledge. It also tackles serious subjects as well such as racism, book burnings, and even Fascism.

Our two characters: David (Toby Macguire), an intelligent geek with no self-confidence and his sister Jennifer (Reese Whitherspoon), an unintelligent and sexually active teenager get zapped by Don Knotts, of all people, into this 1950's sitcom called "Pleasantville".

Everything in the town of Pleasantville is perfect. It's a beautiful suburb set in the 1950's with the perfectly straight picket fences, with the perfectly dressed men wearing suit and ties, with the perfectly dressed women wearing flowered dresses while making meatloaf.

David is euphoric about his insertion into "Pleasantville" for he gets to interact with his favorite TV show. Jennifer, on the other hand, feels trapped in a black-and-white prison and decides to shake things up.

There lies the comedy and the subsequent contrast. Guess what happens when you place a sexually active teenager from the late 1990's into a culture where the parents sleep in twin beds? Though her brother does his best to interact with the locals and keep his sister out of trouble, he too begins to contaminate this world with knowledge and his newly found self-confidence.

With the strategic use of color entering into this world, allegorical concepts are introduced with amazing clarity. I don't want to spoil anything; you just have to see it happen.

The production design was amazing. The digital effects were graphically stunning. The range of all of the actors here was also top notch: William Macy crying at the apex of a sentence during an emotional revelation, the body language of Jeff Daniels, The emotional tones of Joan Allen's voice, and you all ready know about how good mega-stars Toby Macguire and Resse Whitherspoon have become.

Best movie of the 1990's

A Pleasant Surprise
Judging from it's rather modest box office take you probably aren't expecting much from Pleasantville, and neither was I, only to come to find it's actually a visionary masterpiece from the writer of Dave that unfortunately had it's fate lain at the doorstep of inept marketers. They tried to pass it off as a shallow teen comedy, when anybody who recognizes the names in this jaw-dropping ensemble cast ought to know better. Would Tobey Maguire or Reese Witherspoon stoop to the depths of their peers? Would William H. Macy or the esquisite Joan Allen waste their phenomenal talents on a kiddie flick? Would Jeff Daniels... bad example. Would the late J.T. Walsh allow from his last role to be a throwaway, made for no other reason than the sake of money? Just in case you haven't picked up on my condescending tone, the answer to these questions is no.

Tobey Maguire stars as David, a 90's teenager who escapes his everyday humdrum life by living vicariously through his favorite 50's sitcom. But when he's transported to Pleasantville he discovers that the idyllic small town life that his parents and grandparents had spoken so fondly of isn't all it's cracked up to be, beneath the surface that is. Our black and white memories of "The Greatest Generation" are put to the test when he, along with his promiscuous sister (Witherspoon), spark change in their tiny world. It's residence cast of their shackles and for the first time in their conceptually scripted lives they're allowed to experience vitality and life.

Gradually these emotional transitions seep through into their physical universe. They begin changing colors, which picks at the sores of racism in a way many viewers may not want to be confronted with. It's a metaphor that could've been lifted directly from President Kennedy's speech when he said, "If we're to be judged by the color of our skin, then who among us would be content to have the color of our skin changed." This is a profound usse of symbolism that, while it does require you to suspend your disbelief, handles it's material with the utmost respect.

Macy and Allen are the mild-mannered parents to these teenage trendsetters, but unbeknownst to them, their marriage is build on a lie. A lie that says that a woman's place is in the home and that a wife is of no value expect as a domestic. Betty (Allen) begins to question her lot in life, exploring her sexuality with a goofy soda shop owner (Daniels) who aspires to become a painter. Together they make a nice couple, but Betty's husband is left out in the cold.

That's what makes this film so exceptional, there aren't any rights or wrongs, blacks or whites. Everything is layered, and in not-so-obvious ways. Much of the subtlety will likely to lost on the unobservant. To you I suggest that you watch the movie again, this time with the insightful DVD commentary track by director and writer Gary Ross. He sheds much light on what I consider to be one of the finest fantasy films ever made.

With a cast like this there's bound to be a heck of an acting punch to this movie, but I consider Macy's performance to be the best of the bunch, maybe even better than Fargo! He's essentially playing "the villian," the angry white male, but does it in such a way that we empathize with him. He brings a sense of understanding to the role, he realizes that he's a victim of a changing society. His whole life he's been brought up to believe that if he's a good and responsible man that he won't have to worry about household duties, making himself dinner, ect.

This is typical of every actor in this movie, putting it among my favorite of 1998. It's a must-see that's gone unseen for far too long.

Visually remarkable movie
Pleasantville is not a town. It's a fictional TV show from the 1950s, along the lines of Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. Back then, popular situation comedies, filmed in black and white, were wholesome, but they also presented an America which existed only on the small screen. So powerful was the then new medium that we came to believe that these shows really did represent us as we were.

Pleasantville the movie is a visually stunning treat. Its story line does not always work as well as its technical effects. Perhaps this is because The Truman Show, which came out several months earlier and is a superior effort, covers some of the same ideas.

Tobey McQuire and Reese Witherspoon play David and Jennifer, two modern day siblings, who mysteriously get [pulled] into their TV and into Pleasantville. This is fine with David, who loves the TV show and knows every episode, but Jennifer is more than a bit upset, not least of all because she is suddenly black and white and gray. The strange TV repairman who got them into this situation promises to get them safely home as soon as possible.

There are many amusing elements in this TV town. The residents don't realizes that there is anywhere else but Pleasantville, The high school's text books have blank pages. Since they are TV characters, they only know how to do the things they have been scripted to do, which causes chaos when two people come in who are not characters.

As the two real teen-agers weave their sort of magic spell, remarkable things begin to happen. Colors start to appear. At first these are simple items, like a single flower. Later, entire people appear in color. This is where the technical brilliance comes in. Two people in color will be standing among a group who are black and white, but it is impossible tell how such an unnatural event can be done so seamlessly.

At times the movie gets rather heavy philosophically. While mesmerized by the beauty of the colors appearing around them, many of the townsfolk are very disturbed. One of the signatures of those old TV comedies was the idea that everyone should look and behave essentially alike. In fact, conformity was one of the most basic aspects of these shows.

Since Pleasantville is almost entirely a visual experience, I find it difficult to write about it in way that does it justice. It is not one of the all time great movies, because it tries to examine too many subjects. Still, it's easy to follow and has many parts which are immensely enjoyable.

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