Pleasantville

1998

3/4 Stars

Pleasantville tells the fairytale story of a brother and sister (Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon) who get transported into a fictitious 1950's television show. David (Maguire) and Jennifer (Witherspoon) come from a very pronounced late 1990's universe and invariably collide with the idealized but dysfunctional 50's of the town of Pleasantville.

The use of color in the film, while one of the obvious themes, drives home a number of points regarding change, character growth, and the notion of nuance. The film examines closely the notion of what it means for an issue to be "black or white". In addition to playing with the color, filmmaker Gary Ross plays with iconography and angles. The way in which he shoots the mayor of the town is directly lifted from Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will".

The film also pushes certain boundaries. What if there was a female masturbation scene in "Leave it to Beaver"?

Music is well used in the film, most notably with Etta James belting out "At Last" as a teenage couple drive down "lover's lane" under a canopy of cherry blossoms. The use of the theme for the film is also well placed and creates the desired emotional swells.

Downsides to the movie include the fact that the pacing is slow at some points and some of the "morals" are a little heavy handed. Overall though, this is an excellent film with a number of layers to dissect.