Review: Pleasantville

With their mother (Jane Kaczmarek) gone for the weekend, siblings nerdy David (Tobey Maguire) and his slightly promiscuous sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) bicker over who has control of the TV in the lounge room. Jennifer has a hot date coming over to watch MTV, whilst David has plans to watch the all-night marathon of his favourite TV show, the wholesome 50s show ‘Pleasantville’. The bickering turns into some physicality, and before long, the TV remote is broken. Immediately, a TV repairman (Don Knotts!) turns up on their doorstep without having been summoned, and offers them his own special TV remote that apparently makes the experience more interactive. More sibling bickering ensues, but pressing the button on the new remote has the unwanted effect of transporting the two 90s teens into the conservative world of Pleasantville! Now playing Bud and Mary Sue, they are the offspring of All-American parents Betty and George Parker (Joan Allen and William H. Macy). This is fine for David/Bud, who is a super-fan of the show and knows pretty much how things work, but party girl Jen/Mary Sue’s sexual promiscuity has an unfortunate ‘butterfly effect’ on the clean-cut, Conservative town of Pleasantville, that David/Bud has a hard time trying to keep from escalating even further.

Before long, these changes have an interesting side effect of turning the B&W world of Pleasantville into bursts of colour. This causes confusion and fear amongst the townsfolk, especially Big Bob (J.T. Walsh), who is aghast at the ‘coloureds’ seeping into his nice, quiet little town, and decides to do something about it. Meanwhile, Betty undergoes a change of her own, learning from her daughter/Jen certain ‘liberating’ things that blow her previously uncurious mind, and finding a kindred spirit in Bud’s malt shop owner boss Mr. Johnson (Jeff Daniels). Paul Walker and Marley Shelton play the respective love interests for David/Bud and Jen/Mary Sue, whilst “Buffy” actors Danny Strong and Marc Blucas also play Pleasantville residents.

There’s lots to love about this still too underrated 1998 film from writer-director Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit”, “The Hunger Games”). It’s a surprisingly moving drama about intolerance, with obvious but interesting visual symbolism going on throughout that you’ll either scoff at or see real beauty in it. It’s also a funny satire of both wholesome 50s Americana and 90s cynicism and liberal attitude towards sex. On top of that, it’s a visually stunning film, easily the best-looking film of the year and it hasn’t aged in the almost 20 years (yep!) since its release. In fact, it’s probably one of the best-looking films of all-time, not bad for Ross’ directorial debut. The B&W cinematography by John Lindley (“Sneakers”, “Legion”) is beautiful enough, but it’s truly wondrous when colour slowly starts to seep into the B&W world of Pleasantville. There’s an absolutely magical moment where Tobey Maguire and Marley Shelton are driving as Etta James’ ‘At Last’ plays and we see pink petals on trees whilst the two characters stay in B&W, and finally great bursts of (techni) colour emerge throughout the whole frame. Just gorgeous.

There’s something here for everyone, so it really does boggle my mind that it has become somewhat lost in the shuffle of great late 90s films. It’s a lot of fun checking off all the corny 50s TV clichés throughout, like the milkman, firemen rescuing cats in trees, pointy and uncomfortable brassieres, etc. However, as much as it pokes fun of Conservative 50s America, it also doesn’t let the darker, more permissive 90s off the hook, and most importantly, finds virtue in both (The ending in particular, is proof of this). Meanwhile, the physics/geography of Pleasantville are hilariously weird. There’s nothing outside of Pleasantville, and you can never miss the hoop at basketball.

The casting in this film is really spot-on, especially the principals: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, and Joan Allen. Maguire is perfect as the somewhat nerdy dreamer who seems to find an escape in the TV world of Pleasantville, from his less chipper reality. However, even a TV trivia buff like Maguire’s David finds it hard to keep things straight once a shitload of butterflies get stomped on. No, this film isn’t strictly a time-travel movie, but you can’t tell me that all the little changes the two central characters bring to this TV world aren’t essentially examples of the ‘butterfly effect’. Meanwhile, it’s no stretch whatsoever to believe Reese Witherspoon as the cynical, promiscuous sister. The film has a lot of fun at the expense of Macy’s character, particularly late in the film when he seems completely unable to cope when his wife hasn’t made dinner for him when he has come home from work. He seems unable to think of what to do, and Macy is excellent in conveying that ineptitude in a way that doesn’t make you dislike the character. This has just never happened to him before, things have always been the same every day, and he has no clue how to respond. Joan Allen brings a maternal warmth with her here that I’ve failed to detect in performances before and since. She and a wonderful Jeff Daniels (as a character who never had an independent thought until Maguire’s David/Bud comes along and forgets to lock up one night) are the heart of this film, their relationship is played out beautifully and sensitively. Hell, I’d even go so far as to say it’s Daniels’ best screen work to date. Ross definitely deserves credit for writing at least one character in the fictional town of Pleasantville who is flesh-and-blood, and there’s probably three, really. You really feel for the Allen and Daniels characters, and to an extent the Macy character too. Allen gets a taste of independence and decides she wants more of it, and has every right to feel that way. Macy, the poor guy, just doesn’t understand why things have to change, and although we don’t agree with him, we understand why he thinks that way- because it’s in the ‘script’.

In smaller turns, the late Paul Walker and J.T. Walsh impress. Walker gives his one good performance as a total moron, and Witherspoon’s corruption of him is hilarious. Walsh, meanwhile, is one of cinema’s great, unsung character actors. One of the main reasons for this may be that his speciality was banal villainy. He often played bad guys, but kind of bland, bureaucratic villains who weren’t terribly charismatic. It’s the kind of work that sadly lends itself to being overlooked. That’s definitely the case here as he essentially plays the Pleasantville version of Joseph McCarthy, but Walsh was rarely less than spot-on, and he certainly delivers here. I should also point out the priceless casting of Disney comedy favourite Don Knotts as the exasperated TV repairman. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius. I also thought it was kind of inevitable that perennial ‘boring nice guy who always gets overlooked for the brooding dark-haired guy, by the girl’ Marc Blucas turned up as a resident of Pleasantville.

A visually stunning film to be sure, but this isn’t just a film full of pretty pictures. It’s smart, witty, moving, and wholly entertaining. Ross finds a new way of dealing with some old themes and those old themes are still vitally important. They need to be presented and discussed again and again, so that future generations learn. Racism and intolerance, which let’s face it, is at the heart of the film, still exists today, shamefully. We still haven’t learnt. Meanwhile, the crowning achievement of this film in my extremely cynical point of view, is that it amazingly finds a way to convince an audience of the benefit of ‘colourising’ B&W movies. Am I the only one who picked up on that? All kidding aside, this is a magical, beautifully humanistic film.

Rating: B+