PLEASANTVILLE **1/2 (out of four) -a review by Bill Chambers (wchamber@netcom.ca)
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starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels written and directed by Gary Ross
PLEASANTVILLE is a kind of inverted Truman Show: its two protagonists are aware they are stuck in a TV show, but everybody around them isn't. This is a film that in its own peculiar way lectures against conformity-life without individuality as a (here, literally and figuratively) black and white world.
Maguire (The Ice Storm) stars as David, the World's Biggest "Pleasantville" (a fictitious "Father Knows Best"-like family values sitcom from the fifties) fan. One lonely Friday night, at the start of a "Pleasantville" marathon, he and his rebellious sister Jennifer (Witherspoon) are zapped into the program by a mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts-whose cameo garnered loud applause at the recent Toronto International Film Festival premiere). The siblings must live out the lives of characters Bud and Mary Sue Parker, son and daughter of housewife Betty (Allen) and office man George (Fargo's William H. Macy). David knows every episode by heart, so he finds it easy to blend in; careless Jennifer is intent on taking Pleasantville by storm: within hours of her arrival she steals a basketball player's virginity and lectures her naive mother about the birds and the bees. Her impulsive actions trigger a most unusual effect on the gray landscape: flowers, trees, even people begin to look more vibrant than usual. At first, Maguire scrambles to undo Witherspoon's ‘mistakes', but when the love bug bites him unsuspectingly, he joins the Pleasantville revolution.
Ross's (co-screenwriter of Big) beautifully-photographed (by John Lindley) and scored (by Randy Newman) directorial debut is a flawed but fascinating motion picure that recalls the fantasies of Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future, Forrest Gump). The movie demonstrates how a mini-society can be corrupted by, frankly, the introduction of free-spirited sex. Those who discover passion in Pleasantville turn to colour; the town's traditionalist mayor Big Bob (the late J.T. Walsh) outlaws "coloured people", resulting in street riots and political protests. But the movie wants to have its cake and eat it, too: David gives an impassioned, convincing speech that champions self-exploration and experimentation.
PLEASANTVILLE's most problematic character is Macy's: as a chauvanistic father and husband utterly dependent on his wife's homecare (he doesn't even know how to heat up leftovers), we actually feel sorry for him when she ditches him for golly-gee soda shop owner Daniels. It's not George's fault he is a prototypical man-of-the-house fifties TV character. Ross simultaneously resents and sympathizes with him. (The ending feels a bit rushed, glossing over exactly what will become of George and others like him.)
PLEASANTVILLE touches on giant issues (racism, book burning) but is a bit too PG-13 "pleasant" in its execution. I was never quite sure what Ross was trying to say, but his film is a finely acted, thought-provoking experience nonetheless.
-October, 1998
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