Pleasantville

Gary Ross’s debut as a writer-director is an unusual film by mainstream American standards in that it has well-developed thesis sustaining its mission to entertain. At its broadest it is statement of faith in youth and the desire to break away from traditional patterns of behaviour. Specifically it is a celebration of the tectonic shift in Western society that occurred in the 1950 and ‘60s.

David (Tobey Maguire) is a typical 1990s teenager whose lives with his slacker sister, Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) and divorced mother. At school he learns about declining job prospects on graduation and deteriorating global climate. At home he listens to his divorced parents bicker on the phone and is addicted to an old black and white sitcom called ‘Pleasantville’ which depicts an idealized post-war suburban world in which Dad (William H. Macy) comes home each night to dinner on the table prepared by Mom (Joan Allen) who awaits him in her poodle dress and twin set and everything turns out as it should. Via the agency of an elderly TV repairman (Don Knotts) David and Jennifer are magically transported to Pleasantville where they become Bud and Mary Sue. David quite enjoys the experience but Jennifer soon is starting to challenge the sexless conformity of Pleasantville.

Whilst having a similar time-travel premise to Back To The Future (1985) the point of difference here is that Pleasantville's focus is on the host world rather than the two people trapped within it.  Ross with the help of production designer Jeannine Oppewall and cinematographer John :Lindley re-creating the televisual ideal and then goes about disrupting the cheery but colourless sameness as gradually Pleasantville wakes up to itself much as did Truman Burbank in The Truman Show which was released the same year. Ross cleverly introduce real-world realities into his fable with a book-burning incident and mob aggression towards "coloreds".

Certainly Ross overstates his case, particularly by the end of the story, in his own way conforming to the same  happy ending idealizing he is questioning and thus limiting his film’s value as social commentary but Pleasantville is unusual in that it provides both fun and intellectual stimulation. Tobey Maguire is as-ever the dorky kid but Reese Witherspoon adds appeal as Jennifer becomes more self-aware (then aged 22 she played a very different teen in Election the following year) whilst Macy, Allen, Jeff Daniels and J. T. Walsh, in his penultimate role, all join in the spirit of the venture.  

 

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