'Pleasantville' candidate for your mom's favorite movie

'Pleasantville' candidate for your mom's favorite movie

By Daniel Booth
Proud to be related to J.W.B!
ATLANTA
November 6, 1998

Studio: New Line
Running Time: 124 min.
Rating: PG-13
Starring: Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, William Macy
Acting: 4.0 / 5.0
Action: 1.0 / 5.0
Drama: 4.5 / 5.0
Humor: 4.0 / 5.0
Suspense: 1.0 / 5.0

Pleasantville may not be the best movie you will see all summer, but it could very well could be your mother's.

When two high school kids, possible poster children for Generation X, are fighting over a television remote they are magically whisked away from their 1998 broken home into Pleasantville, a television show/altered realm where everything can be summed up as "swell" or "keen."

Pleasantville is the epitome of the black-and-white 1950s sitcom ala Nick-at-Nite. Pleasantville weaves a secure atmosphere that would even be sterile even in the eyes of the elderly or the most devout of Leave It to Beaver junkie.

Tobey Maguire plays David Wagner whose mind is born of black and white reruns. He is cast alongside Reese Witherspoon, sister Jennifer the embodiment of all that is cheap in a relationship, she's a harlot. Together, David and Jennifer try to fit into this world devoid of color, clouds, sex, toilets, and people like Holden Caulfield. In short the town is seemingly utopian. Unfortunately, order is fleeting and seldom worth its price.

Very soon after their arrival changes start to take place. These changes spread like wildfire through Pleasantville, their constructive or destructive nature is left to opinion.

Pleasantville makes a smooth transformation from the comic to the dramatic, its comic twists do not dampen the movies' depth. Along with this transformation the movie blooms from black and white to full color using state-of-the-art technology, thereby adding visual transformation to the already well planned dramatic conversion. Through these subtle conversions, Pleasantville skillfully satirizes the individuals most ardent for social regression, while managing to sound neither controversial nor offensive. Despite Pleasantville's seemingly original plot, it does rather coincidentally resemble this summer's blockbuster The Truman Show. For those who enjoyed The Truman Show or thought it was interesting but a little disturbing you are likely to find Pleasantville just as amusing while a bit easier to swallow. This last part is largely due to the subtle comedy of Pleasantville's Jeff Daniels and William Macy (the car dealer in Fargo) as opposed to Truman's manic and overly exaggerated Jim Carrey. While Daniels and Macy play well suited roles as simple and oblivious Pleasantville towns people, Joan Allen (Face Off's female lead) supplies us with this year's second ranked abdomen-clenching masturbation scene (The first being in There's Something about Mary).

All three performers are known for their supporting acting and no one actor overshadows another. This makes for a well balanced movie that cannot help be comical while adequately restrained. Pleasantville ends after little over two hours with most everything done well but only special effects done remarkably.

In conclusion, I would not recommend running red lights to see this movie but it certainly provides a reasonable substitute for a cold beer or a back massage if you happen to have six dollars and a couple hours to kill.

Copyright © 1998 by Gregory S. Scherrer, Editor and by the Student Publications Board

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