Pleasantville (1998)

reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz


PLEASANTVILLE (director/writer:Gary Ross; cinematographer: John Lindley; cast:Tobey Maguire (David/Bud Parker), Jeff Daniels (Johnson), Joan Allen (Betty Parker),William H. Macy (George Parker), J.T. Walsh (Big Bob), Don Knotts (TV Repairman), Marley Shelton (Margaret), Jane Kaczmarek (David's Mom), Reese Witherspoon (Jennifer/Mary Sue Parker), 1998)

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Obviously there is no such a place as Pleasantville, except in a sitcom. But Pleasantville the movie and the sitcom in the movie, is made into an idealized homogenous (all white) illusionary place, where a brother and sister will be transported into this never-never land of TV fantasy of the 1950s and 1960s, where everyone is repressed and seen in black-and-white sitcom form, reminiscent of shows like Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, and The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet.

Pleasantville is a film about how selective one's memory is when it comes to nostalgia, of pining for values that never existed back then but still are the values exemplified for the traditional family, of the resistance to change, and clashes between those in the film who become "colored" and those who remain in "black-and-white," and about the need to be an individual and not conform.

Pleasantville opens in the '90s, where a fast lifestyle and family dysfunctionality seem to be the norm. Teenagers David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are the twins of a troubled single- parent (Jane), who is never there for them. At night, with their mom out on a date, David is all keyed up to watch a marathon of his favorite TV program, Pleasantville, of which he is an expert on, knowing every character and minor detail about the show. Meanwhile, Jenn has a heavy date with a hunk she wants to be romantic with while watching MTV. The twins end up fighting over the remote for the TV show they want to see and it breaks apart, but bingo, a TV repairman (Don Knotts) who wasn't even called by them appears at their door and gives them a new magical remote (supposedly coming here because of David's true love and knowledge of the Pleasantville TV show), and with the new remote switched on, the twins are now trapped in the TV program Pleasantville, taking the place of the TV siblings Bud and Mary Sue. They are now in a place where people regularly say swell and keen, the weather is always perfect at 72 degrees, there is no such thing as rain, no colors (therefore no discrimination), no sex, no profanity, no fires (firemen only rescue cats), and everything is just peachy. Their new parents are the perfect couple George (William H. Macy) and Betty (Joan Allen), whose idea of marriage revolves around each of them knowing their place- he works and she stays home with a smile on her face, while kept busy by cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children.

David and Jenn have a different outlook on life, with him relating to the simple existence of Pleasantville and upset that he can't fit in with the turbulent '90s: he finds it hard to talk to girls his age, in class he is upset to hear about incurable diseases, ozone depletion, and a tough job market. While Jenn is content with the "new age" freedom of the '90s in sex and not interested in anything that is not "cool."

It's fairly predictable what will happen once the two realize that they are transformed into an unreal TV world, as the film prepares to go into its satire mold and take apart the blandness of such perfection. David has no problem getting right into the program, while Jenn calls this place "Nerdville" and wants out immediately. The calendar permanently reads 1958, but the two, are stuck with their '90s views on things. At school everything seems more innocent and less tense, dates take place over ice cream sodas and cheese burgers, and being pinned means holding hands not having sex, the basketball team wins every game, and there is nothing really to learn in school that is perplexing because there is nothing outside of Pleasantville. But this changes when Jenn asks questions about what is outside of Pleasantville and takes her boyfriend to lover's lane for some serious sex. When things change, colors start to appear, it seems as if Jenn/Mary Sue has begun to upset the universe for these naive folks.

As expected, the siblings can't help but disrupt this simplistic community after living in a supposedly more sophisticated time period, and such things as color, emotions, jealousies, sex, conflicts, makeup for women, and other changes are now brought into this insular community like diseases transmitted to the modern world. The filmmaker then analyzes these changes on those newly affected and the result is a more troubled but more interesting people emerging. Through special effects from digital processing, flowers start taking on color and the film begins to have a modern-day "Alice in Wonderland" look to it.

Jeff Daniels plays the stunted soda shop owner (Mr. Johnson) who makes Betty sexually aware of herself and who blossoms when Bud/David gives him art books and he discovers he can paint in colors. The movie makes the point that the revolutionary changes in the '60s came about when people became dissatisfied with the staidness of the '50s and began to experiment and expand their horizons. J.T. Walsh is Big Bob, the mayor of the town, in an uninspiring role as the most ardent one against change.

There was something that rubbed me the wrong way about this "cute" idea of a film, besides the fact it was boring and I felt as if I was being lectured to about the obvious general ills of society. There are no radical new ideas presented in this film that will make me really think about these issues any differently than the films of the 1950s would have; it is as if the filmmaker is saying that 1950s didn't have films that were critical of society: but a list of such films would be very extensive (Marty, High Noon, Ace in the Hole, etc.). This snooty attitude, looking down at the past from the vantage point of a supposedly "hip" new age bothered me. Afterall, my impression of this film, is that it really is a 1950s sitcom merging with a 1990s "feel good" type of sitcom, and nothing more. It is basically, a gimmicky film, which is the only new ground it breaks, selling an idea about the past that connects it with the present, but doing it at the expense of telling the truth about neither the past or present.

The film presumes that through the efforts of these spoiled teens, that they will break through the "ignorance is bliss community" and bring about art and literature and a more enlightened attitude toward sex, and to inspire a climate for more responsible social changes. The film is trying to say that the innocence of the 1950s must be merged with the social awareness of the 1990s and this can only be accomplished by the teenage heroes, who are not afraid to take chances and change the times they're in. I just didn't buy into this premise and was not convinced that I wasn't seeing anything but a superficial film. For instance, having Jenn/Mary Sue substitute her new ideas of sexual feelings by reading "Lady Chatterley's Lover" instead of going out with her boyfriend and having sex, seemed to me to be a phony response to what literature can offer. Character development is a raising of consciousness that comes about only through a real inward awareness, a book can only act as a catalyst for that experience. What is offered movie-wise, is just the kind of empty gestures made to genuine problems, which can be found on TV programs from both yesterday and today. Therefore it is just another empty gesture at culture, trying to be cute, letting the baby boomers know that it's okay, there're doing just fine. You can keep being materialists, just be cool about it! And by not upsetting the apple cart, just railing against the general ills of society, the filmmaker has succeeded in tapping into a huge audience by not being probative enough, allowing the film's nostalgia to play for it rather than to make one really tune into the '90s aspect of the film it brings up about the real problems this society faces that are not being met, such as, families in crises situations, environments being raped, art and literature being more removed from mainstream America than ever before, schools that can't educate most of their students effectively, a continuation of bland TV programs (getting more obscene is not necessarily an advancement), and a society that is confused about the values it thinks are important. The film has simply lost track of its critique of society, and has failed to show how one age has evolved from another, with each age being misled by those trying to force its values onto another age. There was no one in this film who understood how to bridge the past with the future, instead this becomes a film just like the sitcoms it parodies, which means it's just another escape film, unable or unwilling to delve deeply into all the real problems it brings up.

REVIEWED ON 9/30/99     GRADE: C-

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

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