PLEASANTVILLE (1998) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Writer/Director: Gary Ross Starring: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, J.T. Walsh, Don Knotts, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton, Marisa Ribisi, Jane Kaczmarek
"Pleasantville" is an amazing film, and it's incredibly philosophical about life and all, but there's a couple things people have been looking over. They watch this film and they see that it deals with the complex subject of change and looking strangely at the 50s ideal American Dream of suburbia where everyone's happy and live without fear of conflict, and although they think that the reason it's such a great film is because it's philosophical, they're glossing over something else that's there. There always has to be something more than just philosophy to make a piece of art great, even if what you're looking at is Dostoevsky. Reading "Crime and Punishment" is not a great read because it expertly undlies humanity, but because it's a damn tense read that shocks us with its major insights.
The makers of "Plesantville" have come up with a gimmick that is truly ingenius. As, the characters in this film go through major changes in the way they see life, they change from black and white to color. This is the reason this film is great. Director and writer Gary Ross has found a way to convey not only the fact that they're changing but what they're feeling like and what it must be like to everyone else in one simple technique that to the audience is completely cinematic and jaw-dropping. Seeing the first red rose amongst a patch of otherwise black and white flowers is nearly orgasmic.
"Pleasantville" is a simple film, filled with not only this gimmick, but another one more that is commonly known as the "Fish Out of Water" movie, and despite some clumsiness in this set-up, "Pleasantville" may go down in cinema history as the best "Fish Out of Water" movie since "Being There." It deals with two modern-day teenage siblings, David and Jennifer (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon, respectively) - he's a loser hermit who watches an old black and white 50s show called "Pleasantville" with a passion; she's a cynical, slutty connioseur of MTV and the like. One night, when she has a date to watch a concert on TV and he wants to watch the 24-hour "Pleasantville" marathon, they have a fight over the remote control and break it. A sinister-looking TV repairman (played by none other than Don Knotts) shows up, gives them a new remote, and when fighting over that one, they suddenly get sucked into "Pleasantville."
Now, I don't know if anyone remembers the ill-fated sitcom from the early 90s, "Honey, I'm Home" (where they imported a family from the 50s and put them in the cynical 90s), but even if you do, don't worry because after about 10 minutes, these two take off in different directions. Instead of staying with the overdone gimmick of "They're from the 90s and now in the 50s! How about that?!," which features David and Jennifer trying to fit in at home (the parents are played to perfection by William H. Macy and Joan Allen) and at school, and discovering all the annoyances of living in perfection (they quickly discovers nothing burns, it never rains, the fireman don't know what a fire is, and there's not bathroom in those stalls), it instead takes off questioning everything that has been put before them.
Starting with Jennifer teaching the captain of the basketball team (Paul Walker) what should be done at Lover's Lane, a chain reaction is started where most people learn about what else there is in life, and when they do, they turn into color, while everything else is in black and white. This actually robs the film of any real subtlety about its message, making everything incredibly obvious, but it makes up for this in two ways: 1) the gimmick of people changing never becomes tiresome, and is always handled with originality and emotion; and 2) it actually adds on top of that some real complications.
The world of "Pleasantville" is happy, and perpetually so, and only changes when one person who has seen the difference and dislikes it enough to do something about it. But is it really a good thing that these people changed, and complicated everything? Wouldn't it be better if everything was at peace and there was nothing wrong ever? Gary Ross says no, and the rest of this film is his argument. Isn't the fact that there are conflicts and suffering and the chance for happiness much better than actual happiness? Isn't the great thing about life that things will not stay the same for any real length of time, and that you always have to get used to living with something else?
The fact that Gary Ross explores all these angles is incredible, since most films follow through on their subjects just so they can prove their points. "Pleasantville" shows the modern-day as cynical and pessimistic, with chances of things only becoming worse. The 50s, when everything was seemingly perfect, is shown as the opposite of that, and should theoretically be the ideal place to live in. The changes, when they happen, only bring out pain and suffering, resulting in a darker second half, where the black and whites end up in a war against the "colors," and book burning, prejudices, and social upheveal take hold. But Ross says this is all worth it, just because when you suffer, you finally see how free and grand life really is.
For this philosophical argument, I commend it, but that's really not why it's great. Sure, it says that life is worth living, but I'm much more interested in the way this all comes about than rather what it says. For me, "Plesantville" is worth multiple viewings just for those moments when the colors pop up amidst the black and white photography. I love those moments when little things are color while the rest are still the same. And when instead of safe 50s ballads, Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis creep onto the soundtrack. And when the pages of the normally blank books in the library fill up with words before our eyes. There's an intensely touching moment when the mother has learned about sex and has turned to color, and asks David in confidence to put makeup on her to hide up her transformation, and another moment that's nearly erotic when the makeup is slowly taken off by someone else. And my favorite moment, when David and his new girlfriend drive from the black and white road into Lover's Lane, where everything's vibrant colors, and then later it rains for the first time.
Gary Ross has assembled an incredible cast of actors who aren't so well-known but are all immensely talented, and everyone gives an incredible performance, but there are some real standouts. Tobey Maguire is effortlessly lovable in the lead, as he always is, and Reese Witherspoon is hysterical as the cynic who learns about real passion from a D.H. Lawrence book (as we all did). William H. Macy brings real emotion and depth to his character, especially in the final moments of the film, and Jeff Daniels, as the local sodajerk, comes off as sweet and charmingly innocent. In his final performance, J.T. Walsh demonstrates exactly why he was great: because he was eerily prickly the only he could be. Joan Allen, though, looks like the one who would get the Oscar nomination out of the lot. She brings true emotion and creativity to her role of the housewife who learns about passion early on, and tries her best to deal with it, demonstrating that she may possibly be the greatest actress in her age demographic working today.
But will anyone see it as nothing but a philosophical film, and an unsubtle one at that? I hope not, because it's one of those films that is endlessly inventive and truly magical, in the tradition of the best films of Frank Capra and even Victor Fleming (although some are comparing it to "Back to the Future," it almost has as much magic as, say, "The Wizard of Oz"). In years, people may reflect on this as the film they nearly misunderstood for its greatness, but right now, it's one of the best films to come out this year, just on the strength of how happy it can make even the most pessimistic of the lot, and how it can make the future look optimistic for a change.
MY RATING (out of 4): ****
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