# Pleasantville (1998)

### reviewed by
Allan Woodward

     Once upon a time... .

A true sleeper doesn't come along very often. Films that aren't much more than a tiny blip on the radar screen of our collective Hollywood-consciousness, suddenly appearing at your local multiplex, inspiring a lot of "what movie is that?" from people standing in front of the box office, trying to choose a picture. Pleasantville, the new film from Gary Ross (co-creator of Dave and Big), is the genuine article: a sleeper hit.

Starring Tobey Maguire, recently seen in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Reese Witherspoon (Fear, Twilight) as high-school twins, Pleasantville tells the story of how these two are transported into the '50s-perfect world of the titular television program.

Pleasantville the show enjoys immortal life on the TV Time! cable channel and David (Maguire) is its biggest fan. David's sister, Jennifer (Witherspoon) is decidedly not a fan, more concerned with in-school popularity and personal trampiness. Through a bizarre twist involving a mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts), David and Jennifer get their big chance to really get into their TV. They take the places of Pleasantville's regulars and assume the roles of Bud and Mary-Sue Parker, the perfect kids of the perfect Pleasantville couple, George and Betty (expertly played with a variety of layers by William H. Macy and Joan Allen).

Like The Wizard of Oz, which gets a splashy re-release on Friday, November 6th, Pleasantville uses color and monochrome to great effect. David and Jennifer's world is as colorful as our own, but Pleasantville is in "glorious black-and-white," heightening the unreality of this depiction of a '50s that never was. In Pleasantville, everyone is pleasant, the Fire Department only rescues cats out of trees (there are no fires) and the regularity of existence is accepted by everyone.

The inclusion of these two is like introducing a virus into a petri dish. Just by being there, they begin a sequence of changing events that have the potential to shatter the apparently idyllic existence of Pleasantville. This is a town where everyone has a role to play, no matter how monotonous. Given a taste of irregularity, what would these people do?

The transformation is played out in the slow revelation of color. First a rose, then a taillight, splashes of iridescent red in the midst of a grayscale environment. Surroundings that bear witness to a shift in the immortal regularity of Pleasantville are given tones and shades that never existed before. They are freed from within themselves and display this outwardly.

As David and Jennifer, acting as not-quite-right Bud and Mary-Sue, continue life within Pleasantville, carrying with them the concepts of free thought (and free love), the change spreads to the inhabitants. Soon the screen is dotted with rich colors. Books, once blank on the inside, now have words, manifesting themselves as the classic elements of social change, delivering ideas and philosophies to the ever-growing ranks of colorized Pleasantville denizens.

Pleasantville is powerful allegory, presented in a format that Everyman can enjoy. Seeded with humor and self-reference, the film molds potent thought into entertainment. Art, education, youth and sex are all rightly shown to be universal vehicles of change. The profound influence of artistic masters such as Titian and van Gogh is introduced in a skillful scene involving a newly-filled art book taken from the suddenly-relevant library. Without words, the deeply-moving experience of art as transcendence is given, like a beautiful gift, to the audience.

Script, direction and eye-popping visual effects (this is the most gorgeous movie this year, bar none) tie into first-rate performances from every cast member, no matter how small the role. J.T. Walsh makes his final film appearance as Pleasantville's mayor, and is perfectly cast. He is the physical embodiment - soft middle and buzz cut - of the iconic, successful '50s man. Jeff Daniels, as Mr. Johnson, the Soda Shop owner, submits a performance so skillfully-crafted and nuanced that it's like a living Faberge egg that opens to reveal detail upon detail.

In fact, I could go on at length about the incredible acting work done in Pleasantville. When I say that the film has the best ensemble of the year, I'm not exaggerating; it's impossible to find one performance that lacks. Randy Newman's score is richly-textured, peppered with well-chosen '50s standards, capped off by an excellent cover of The Beatles' Across the Universe by Fiona Apple.

See Pleasantville. This is the kind of film, packed with genuine resonance, that puts saccharine, artificial pictures like Forrest Gump in their place, inspiring and affirming even as it educates.

    Grade: A

Just Rent It This Week: The English Patient; Starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas. Grade: A

    Allan @ the Movies
    http://www.erols.com/deerskin/movies/

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