PLEASANTVILLE
A Film Review by Brian Takeshita
Rating: *** out of ****
David (Tobie Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are twin brother and sister, but the bond that all twins supposedly have just isn't there. In fact, they couldn't be more dissimilar: David is a social reject and not given a second thought by the girls in his high school senior class. Jennifer, on the other hand, is more along the lines of the school slut. While Jennifer enjoys a pretty heavy social scene, David's world exists largely in front of the TV, watching the cable channel full of hits from television's golden age. One evening, while their single mom is out of town, the two kids fight over who gets to use the TV. Jennifer has the hottest guy in school coming over to watch MTV, but David is all set to watch the Pleasantville marathon - hours and hours of his favorite black and white show, during which they'll be holding a Pleasantville trivia contest where he could win a thousand dollars. During a struggle over the remote control, it gets flung across the room and shatters to pieces. "This is a new TV," says David. "It doesn't work without a remote." Uh, oh.
Luckily (and mysteriously), a friendly TV repairman (Don Knotts) shows up at their door just at that moment and gives them a specially made remote. "One that really puts you right in the show," he says. No sooner does David flip on the Pleasantville marathon than the two are at it again, struggling over the new device. Suddenly, they're zapped into the sitcom. They have now become Bud and Mary Sue Parker, two of Pleasantville's main characters. Faced with this incredibly strange turn of events, they must live out the lives of the fictional family members in the Pleasantville world until David can contact the repairman (who talks to them through the Parker family television set) and convince him to take them back home.
Gosh, there are so many possibilities that could be explored with this setup, comedic and otherwise. Screenwriter and director Gary Ross takes one of the more obvious, but also one of the most intriguing routes by setting up the two kids as travelers in terra incognito. On the surface, it would seem that PLEASANTVILLE is meant to contrast the sets of values between 1950's television and the real world of the 90's, but it's actually quite a bit more than that. As David and Jennifer interact with the characters of the TV show, they open the fictional personalities' worlds up to new and different experiences and ways of thinking. We see that the "values" of the Pleasantville citizens are rooted in the fact that they have lived two-dimensional lives and have been deprived of the knowledge that exists beyond the television script. Once in the Pleasantville world, the movie switches to black and white, but as the citizens learn to step beyond their accustomed boundaries, people and things gradually being to gain color. This is a metaphor not only for the added dimension one gains when opened to a new way of thinking, but also for the way in which the townsfolk learn that, for good or bad, life is not so clear cut (black and white) after all.
Ross and cinematographer John Lindley have a keen eye for shooting, composing, and lighting the scenes much like television from the period, adding significantly to the TV sitcom feel. Ross also delivers some effective jokes by up-playing the incongruity between TV and real life, such as when Jennifer goes to the ladies room and finds there are no toilets. We never see TV actors answer nature's call, so the facilities just don't exist. Later, we learn that no one in the town knows how to put out a fire, since all the fire department ever had to do in any of the Pleasantville episodes was rescue cats from trees. Watching the first half hour in which we're treated to the saccharine words and actions of the Pleasantville characters is good fun as we identify them with similar characters from such shows as "Leave it to Beaver," "Father Knows Best," and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet." All the actors look as if they had a great time playing their roles, and do so with relish. It's rare you get to go over the top so much as in this film.
Among those clearly having the most fun are William H. Macy and Joan Allen, who play George and Betty Parker, Bud and Mary Sue's TV parents. Starting out as the stereotypical sitcom mom and dad, they have the difficult job of playing characters who go through the most extreme changes as their world is turned upside-down. However, with their more than competent level of acting, they pull it off without a hitch.
Jeff Daniels is also present as Mr. Johnson, who runs the soda fountain. Through Mr. Johnson, we get one of the more enjoyable looks at the pleasure in finding something new, especially when he discovers his love of art. There's a wondrous scene where he flips through an art book full of beautiful, colorful (remember, most of the world is still black and white) images. I'll admit, this scene contained the obligatory famous paintings (at one point, I thought to myself, "I'll bet the next one will be van Gogh's 'Starry Night,'" and it was), so the wonder may not be quite the same for us, but it's still very effective. Unfortunately, much of the attention given to his character is unwisely focused on his relationship with Betty Parker, an aspect which only confuses the film and drags it down.
Maguire and Witherspoon are very good as the fish out of water. Maguire came onto the acting scene about five years ago when he played the title character in the short-lived (and very underrated) Fox series, "Great Scott!" Witherspoon gained notoriety from her performance in the 1993 film, A FAR OFF PLACE, and has had an accelerated career since the movie FEAR, with Mark Wahlberg. Both provide fine performances, but also show a lot of potential for doing greater things as they develop their skills.
As much as there's a villain in PLEASANTVILLE, it's J.T. Walsh in his final performance as the town's mayor, Big Bob. Walsh offers his usual magnanimous presence as the leader of the opposition to all the change that's happening, and best off all, he looks like he's having fun in the role, too. Not a bad one on which to make his exit.
There are a few downsides to the film, such as the fact that we get bashed over the head with the morality lesson a few times. When the town citizenry becomes polarized between those who have become colorized and those who have not (the spectrally challenged?) prejudice erupts and signs reading "No Coloreds" get posted in store windows. There's even a book burning to rid the library of the evil literature like Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger, harkening to the imagery of the German Nazi's. I was also disappointed that the film didn't address the issue of what happened to the original Bud and Mary Sue that David and Jennifer replaced, and this is only one of the reasons the end of the film screams, "Sequel!" However, these points didn't detract all that much from the film's otherwise enjoyable nature. For a couple of hours, PLEASANTVILLE transports us into another world that's, well, quite pleasant.
Review posted October 30, 1998
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