'Pleasantville' (1998) Taps into Hollywood's Lack of Integrity with Subtle Messages That Can Be Easily Missed
(www.pleasantville.com)
April 2, 1999 (Friday)
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, J.T. Walsh, Jeff Daniels
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and thematic elements
Genre: Drama
In My Opinion: **** out of ****
In Short: It takes a lot of careful observation to see the true morals and lessons brought out in this film; one can easily be misled as to what the real message is.
Review: In a literally colorless world with an almost mechanical population, there is no room for transitioning variety or even the customary happenings of everyday life, such as rain, fire, or emotions. The town of Pleasantville has one adjective: pleasant. There is no sadness, no fear, no danger, no discomfort, no love, and no hate. Put simply, it's a place Alanis Morissette could really work wonders for. J One big note however is that it is only a 50's sitcom that airs in reruns on an "oldies" TV station… or is it?
I had waited months to see this movie and after doing so on opening day I was not disappointed. I found it quite intriguing and delightful and went back 3 more times in the period it endured at the box office. But it wasn't until months later, when I slipped in for a small showing in one of those crummy "dollar theaters" after not having seen it for so long, that my eyes were opened to such a deeper meaning and perspective than I had previously experienced.
It is a far too feasible misconception that this is a film which forwards the idea that a world without some "healthy" immorality is not a world at all. Instead, the actual message, which so far has not been recognized by many viewers that I know of, is that a world without immorality doesn't give one the ability to discern right and wrong for himself, because everything is automatically right. There is no room for mistakes and growth and learning because there are no mistakes to be made, no space for growth, and never anything new to learn, and that is the key component to the entire purpose of the story. Now I'm not saying that's necessarily the way it was intended to be interpreted, but that is hands down the proper way in which it should be.
Besides a hidden symbolic depth and themes that go beyond what we can absorb from previews, this film has elements of physical wonder and strength that make it just so great to watch. The visual effects are indeed striking and what little color is revealed is impartially favorable. After spending the bulk of the movie staring at black and white, it's hard not to identify and appreciate the fact that our own world allows for all that brilliance and more. A truly intelligent addition to it all, however, is the charming and ardently attainable cast that operates together like clockwork.
That said, the plot goes as such. David and Jennifer are two very 90's high school twins with the typical "relationship" outline of don't-mess-with-my-life-and-I-won't-mess-with-yours. They demonstrate the well-known teenage qualities of two of the common versions of adolescents today. David is the shyer, subtler twin who would rather watch TV Land than MTV, while Jennifer is the wild, licentious one who spends her days at the mall and relishes in the pleasures of the offensive world of degradation.
But when a freak accident enchantingly plops them smack dab in the middle of Pleasantville as two of the main characters, they are forced to depend on each other to make it back home. Nevertheless, Jennifer works her magic and introduces the town to a more unrestrained approach to life, and while David frantically tries to stop her and get them back home, he realizes that change was exactly what the town needed. And, as said earlier, not to flip the town around into some corrupt society, but rather to give people the choice to decide between good and bad and to reap the results of their decisions and learn from them. Not only were difficult choices being brought upon the town, but the simple accepted occurrences of ordinary existence also began to take place. People got hurt. They cried. They became afraid and happy and thoughtful and started to think for themselves, and that's when their physical world turned colors as well.
This can be looked upon as quite a controversial movie, but to me the message is finally clear. I hope after reading this people can be more open to the film than they had been in the past, and realize that without choosing how our own lives will be run, we'll never know what we could have done better.
Until the next great movie I see, I remain sincerely, Danielle Flynn, IMR
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