Film review: 'Pleasantville'
The black-and-white world of the 1950s is not so rosy in "Pleasantville", a brainy, inventive comedy about a couple of '90s kids who get transported back to the comfy world of '50s TV.
New Line Cinema should pull terrific ratings for the movie, a big hit recently at the Toronto International Film Festival. Not only us old codgers who hearken to the comforting days of "Ozzie and Harriett"/"Father Knows Best"/"The Donna Reed Show", but today's channel-surfing vid-kids also will be charmed by the amusing cultural comedy.
In the appealing yet sobering film, the spotlight is on '90s brother and sister David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) who, thanks to some hocus-pocus by a squirrelly TV repairman (Don Knotts), find themselves zapped to the nuclear-family world of a prototypical '50s TV sitcom, residing in a white-picket-fenced town named Pleasantville.
Of course, everything there is in black-and-white, and all is always swell: Dad (William H. Macy) cheerily comes home for dinner at the same time every night, and his supportive wife (Joan Allen) not only has his martini chilled but his favorite dish prepared as well. There are no rain clouds, from the malt shop to the high school gym, where the basketball team has never lost a game.
Narratively, writer-director Gary Ross serves up an entertaining fish-out-of-water story as the '90s kids bring their values, outlooks and experiences to an earlier, far more innocent time. David, a '50s junkie from watching old episodes of "Pleasantville" on cable, knows what to expect, but Jennifer, utterly of the Spice Girl Age, is appalled. She thinks everyone is a bunch of nerds and hopelessly repressed. Outfitted in a long skirt, thick brassiere and curly-cue hairdo, she's about to change that.
For Jennifer, social change starts with, well, the cutest guy in school, who, of course, is captain of the basketball team. Impatient with the bashful boy's moves to pin her at the malt shop, she pins him quickly at lovers' lane. "Pleasantville" is a hoot as Jennifer assaults the town's expectations and behavior with her foxy wiles and '90s approach. Gentler Dave, who has an appreciation for the kinder-and-gentler times, also comes to see that the lives of these happy, pleasant people are only covers for inner paralysis and torment.
While terrifically entertaining, "Pleasantville" has much beneath its surface. Ross has, in the broadest, brainiest sense, created a philosophical think-piece. Beneath the droll humor, there's a countercultural broadside levied at both the '90s and their return-to-family-values posture and the '50s with their smothering, philistine-like mentality. "Pleasantville" might be described as having a '60s mentality, questioning the values, aspirations and lifestyle of the age of Ozzie Nelson/Ward Cleaver/Jim Anderson.
Thankfully, Ross never lets the philosophizing capsize the comedy. "Pleasantville" is a terrifically engaging entertainment highlighted by the cast's deft performances. As the sweet, sensitive touchstone character David, Maguire is aptly sympathetic, while Witherspoon's feisty turn as girl-in-a-whirl Jennifer is beguiling and hilarious. As the Harriet Nelson/June Cleaver-ish wife and mother, Allen is perfect in her erect domesticity, while Macy's calm but befuddled fatherly manner is perfectly Ozzie.
Knotts' performance as the cantankerous TV repairman is a treat; his Barney-like hysterics are a hoot, and his presence is a great bridge between the decades. As a white-bread soda jerk, Jeff Daniels taps into the frustrations of a man who has a lot more in him than society allows, while J.T. Walsh, with his buzz-cut demeanor, personifies the era's most alarming storm trooper-like sensibility.
Technically, "Pleasantville" is excellent, beginning with its creative use of color. As David and Jennifer open up the thinking of the '50s world, objects turn to color from black-and-white. It's a gradual process, of course, and visual effects supervisor Chris Watts and color effects designer Michael Southard create a wonderfully appropriate visualization for the story and theme. Indeed, the overall look is, well, swell: Costume designer Judianna Makovsky's skirts and sweaters are a perfect fit for the times, while production designer Jeannine Oppewall has filled "Pleasantville" with all the right chromey products.
PLEASANTVILLE
New Line Cinema
Producers: Jon Kilik, Robert Degus, Steven Soderbergh, Gary Ross
Screenwriter-director: Gary Ross
Executive producers: Michael De Luca, Mary Parent
Director of photography: John Lindley
Production designer: Jeannine Oppewall
Costume designer: Judianna Makovsky
Editor: William Goldenberg
Visual effects supervisor: Chris Watts
Color effects designer: Michael Southard
Music: Randy Newman
Co-producers: Allen Alsobrook, Allison Thomas, Edward Lynn
Color and black-and-white/stereo
Cast:
David: Tobey Maguire
Jennifer: Reese Witherspoon
Betty Parker: Joan Allen
George Parker: William H. Macy
Mr. Johnson: Jeff Daniels
TV repairman: Don Knotts
Mayor: J.T. Walsh
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
New Line Cinema should pull terrific ratings for the movie, a big hit recently at the Toronto International Film Festival. Not only us old codgers who hearken to the comforting days of "Ozzie and Harriett"/"Father Knows Best"/"The Donna Reed Show", but today's channel-surfing vid-kids also will be charmed by the amusing cultural comedy.
In the appealing yet sobering film, the spotlight is on '90s brother and sister David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) who, thanks to some hocus-pocus by a squirrelly TV repairman (Don Knotts), find themselves zapped to the nuclear-family world of a prototypical '50s TV sitcom, residing in a white-picket-fenced town named Pleasantville.
Of course, everything there is in black-and-white, and all is always swell: Dad (William H. Macy) cheerily comes home for dinner at the same time every night, and his supportive wife (Joan Allen) not only has his martini chilled but his favorite dish prepared as well. There are no rain clouds, from the malt shop to the high school gym, where the basketball team has never lost a game.
Narratively, writer-director Gary Ross serves up an entertaining fish-out-of-water story as the '90s kids bring their values, outlooks and experiences to an earlier, far more innocent time. David, a '50s junkie from watching old episodes of "Pleasantville" on cable, knows what to expect, but Jennifer, utterly of the Spice Girl Age, is appalled. She thinks everyone is a bunch of nerds and hopelessly repressed. Outfitted in a long skirt, thick brassiere and curly-cue hairdo, she's about to change that.
For Jennifer, social change starts with, well, the cutest guy in school, who, of course, is captain of the basketball team. Impatient with the bashful boy's moves to pin her at the malt shop, she pins him quickly at lovers' lane. "Pleasantville" is a hoot as Jennifer assaults the town's expectations and behavior with her foxy wiles and '90s approach. Gentler Dave, who has an appreciation for the kinder-and-gentler times, also comes to see that the lives of these happy, pleasant people are only covers for inner paralysis and torment.
While terrifically entertaining, "Pleasantville" has much beneath its surface. Ross has, in the broadest, brainiest sense, created a philosophical think-piece. Beneath the droll humor, there's a countercultural broadside levied at both the '90s and their return-to-family-values posture and the '50s with their smothering, philistine-like mentality. "Pleasantville" might be described as having a '60s mentality, questioning the values, aspirations and lifestyle of the age of Ozzie Nelson/Ward Cleaver/Jim Anderson.
Thankfully, Ross never lets the philosophizing capsize the comedy. "Pleasantville" is a terrifically engaging entertainment highlighted by the cast's deft performances. As the sweet, sensitive touchstone character David, Maguire is aptly sympathetic, while Witherspoon's feisty turn as girl-in-a-whirl Jennifer is beguiling and hilarious. As the Harriet Nelson/June Cleaver-ish wife and mother, Allen is perfect in her erect domesticity, while Macy's calm but befuddled fatherly manner is perfectly Ozzie.
Knotts' performance as the cantankerous TV repairman is a treat; his Barney-like hysterics are a hoot, and his presence is a great bridge between the decades. As a white-bread soda jerk, Jeff Daniels taps into the frustrations of a man who has a lot more in him than society allows, while J.T. Walsh, with his buzz-cut demeanor, personifies the era's most alarming storm trooper-like sensibility.
Technically, "Pleasantville" is excellent, beginning with its creative use of color. As David and Jennifer open up the thinking of the '50s world, objects turn to color from black-and-white. It's a gradual process, of course, and visual effects supervisor Chris Watts and color effects designer Michael Southard create a wonderfully appropriate visualization for the story and theme. Indeed, the overall look is, well, swell: Costume designer Judianna Makovsky's skirts and sweaters are a perfect fit for the times, while production designer Jeannine Oppewall has filled "Pleasantville" with all the right chromey products.
PLEASANTVILLE
New Line Cinema
Producers: Jon Kilik, Robert Degus, Steven Soderbergh, Gary Ross
Screenwriter-director: Gary Ross
Executive producers: Michael De Luca, Mary Parent
Director of photography: John Lindley
Production designer: Jeannine Oppewall
Costume designer: Judianna Makovsky
Editor: William Goldenberg
Visual effects supervisor: Chris Watts
Color effects designer: Michael Southard
Music: Randy Newman
Co-producers: Allen Alsobrook, Allison Thomas, Edward Lynn
Color and black-and-white/stereo
Cast:
David: Tobey Maguire
Jennifer: Reese Witherspoon
Betty Parker: Joan Allen
George Parker: William H. Macy
Mr. Johnson: Jeff Daniels
TV repairman: Don Knotts
Mayor: J.T. Walsh
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/21/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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