Reviewed by Russell Baillie
Cast: Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen
Director: Gary Ross
Two 90s kids go through the looking-glass into the wonderland of a 1950s television programme. It's a show named Pleasantville, reflecting a supposedly more innocent time where everything is, yes, pleasant and in black and white.
Soon, however, despite the pair being absorbed as characters of the show, their presence causes a flux in the Pleasantville universe.
Some of the townsfolk start breaking the habits of a rerun lifetime, some start to wonder if there is anything outside their hermetically sealed suburb, there's even a sexual revolution of sorts and some folks start bursting out into living technicolour. The phenomenon which divides the town: Signs reading "No Coloureds" start popping up in shop windows.
As a television-age fairytale, Pleasantville is clever and engaging but hardly profound. But it's certainly entertaining, both for its Back to the Future-meets-Groundhog Day inventiveness and wit, and for its simple but striking special effect - colour and B&W characters against a monochrome background.
Helping too are the performances of a fine cast. It is fronted by Maguire (last seen in Ice Storm) as 90s David and 50s Bud Parker, the sensitive geek who finds solace from his dysfunctional family in watching the old show on cable.
Witherspoon is his teen hussy sister Jennifer, whose alter ego Betty Sue figures initially she'll make the best of being stuck in Pleasantville with so many cleancut young men.
And Allen as Betty Parker (who played Maguire's 70s mother in Ice Storm too) does wonderful things as the repressed 50s housewife finally following her heart, even if the character has to suffer the odd gimmick of the effects department. As her hubby, George, character actor Macy neatly brings off another of his gosh-darn performances.
Once through that cathode ray looking-glass, the film does take its time to find the dark heart of its satire. Its showy, calling attention to its visual effects, and you could also find fault with its television-land logic. Or find yourselves a little cynical at just how much the characters turn their brush with a different world into such a learning experience.
But Pleasantville works as a fizzy and funny populist fantasy. It's recommended you see this rather good film before they try to make a very bad television show out of it.* * * *
Pictured: Joan Allen and Tobey Maguire in Pleasantville.
