Screenwriter
Gary Ross (Big, Dave) makes his directorial debut with this visual powerhouse
of a movie that gets a little bogged down by a heavy-handed script. Pleasantville
is the name given to a Father Knows Best-type T.V. series, where everything is
peachy and black and white.
Tobey
Maguire (The Ice Storm) and Reese Witherspoon (Fear) begin the film as siblings
caught in the real world, where parents divorce and being popular is important.
While fighting over the television remote, they find themselves zapped into Pleasantville.
A development that pleases Maguire, a shy high schooler who's seen nearly every
episode multiple times. Witherspoon, on the other hand, finds it to be a colorless
place full of inexperienced boys. These two change this small town into a completely
different place.
First
and foremost, this film is a technical marvel that offers color with black and
white interaction seamlessly. The performances are solid, especially William H.
Macy and Joan Allen as a married couple straight out of the 1950s. It also contains
the final performance of J.T. Walsh, and a good one at that. Surprisingly, flat
is the usually dependable Jeff Daniels (Dumb and Dumber).
Pleasantville
is one of those films where either you buy into the whimsical fantasy or you don't.
In that aspect it's kind of like The Truman Show, which served as a flipside to
this film. It's also the third film of the year that has a story that can't live
up to the striking and daring visuals, the other two being Dark City and What
Dreams May Come. Still, I suspect this film will strike a warm chord with audiences.
