Pleasantville is a really messy, unfocused film that has nothing to do but define its' own atmosphere for over two hours, while trying to convince us that there is a much deeper meaning behind it all.
I'm no expert on shows from the fifties, and I am not a product of that era, but I have of course watched many shows from that period and I understand what the movie was going for; it was trying to show us that things aren't as picture perfect as they appeared in those shows, and that change into the modern world isn't so bad--it just makes us "free". Fine, that's a cute premise, maybe for one of today's sitcoms (in which it has already been done many times before), but the town of "Pleasantville" is such an extreme exaggeration that I never bought the fantasy world presented within it. This is something that is necessary to the viewer when it comes to films involving fantasy--we must believe in the world depicted. It didn't work for me at all. Sex was something that was never talked about on shows from the 1950's, but I'm sure Mrs. Cleaver (Yes, I mean the fictional character) knew what it was! I also think that the characters from those shows also knew that there was a world beyond their own town, that there were days when it would rain, and that the local sports teams didn't always win.
Director Gary Ross seems pretty unsure of his material himself, and that is probably why the film keeps defining itself; within the last half-hour of the movie, a young boy punches another. Those watching look on in surprise and wonder. "They've never seen violence before" someone a few rows behind me in the theatre said. Well, duh! I thought this was clear as soon as the movie started (but I still never bought it), leaving the audience to defend the monotony of the screenplay. At one point, William H. Macy looks all over the place for his wife, looking for his dinner. "I feel sorry for him," an uncomfortable audience member said.
When the movie is not overdoing itself in explaining its world, it is trying to shock us with sexual humor, also in the same, tedious, overblown way--after Paul Walker is deflowered by Reese Witherspoon, the camera LINGERS on him, emphasizing his shocked and dumbfounded expression, milking it for ungenuine laughs. The film then TEDIOUSLY expands this single joke commonly throughout the movie, showing us shocking images of kinky sex acts, some I can't even mention here, for my comments won't be posted (HINT: one involves a popular number in the double digits), and when we're not seeing the acts of sex or the blown-away expressions of those who have just experienced it, we get some really "shocking" conversation; Reese Witherspoon has been shacking up with every guy in sight, then educates her mother on ways to "please" herself--Oh, MY! Another shock, provoking embarrassed and courteous laughs from the audience.
The final scenes of the film dissolve into complete disorder; Don Knotts starts getting angry at the kids for their disruption of Pleasantville, and goes quite mad, but what was he expecting in the first place, and why does his demeanor change so radically from that of the first act? Other characters end their stories without solutions, not that its wrong to leave certain stories open-ended--I just feel that Ross didn't know what he wanted to do with most of his characters. The final scene "Gee, you know you're pretty smart" is poorly written, tacked-on, unsatisfying, and forced.
I think what bothers me most about the film is that, since these banal characters are just imaginary, dull caricatures of 50's television shows, who don't even really exist, why should we care about them? At one point, Tobey Macguire's character is offered the chance to leave Pleasantville, but he turns it down--he wants to make a "difference" here. WHO CARES! It's just a TV show! Maybe I would have cared if I found the world of Pleasantville to be believable, but I never did. Grade: D
I'm no expert on shows from the fifties, and I am not a product of that era, but I have of course watched many shows from that period and I understand what the movie was going for; it was trying to show us that things aren't as picture perfect as they appeared in those shows, and that change into the modern world isn't so bad--it just makes us "free". Fine, that's a cute premise, maybe for one of today's sitcoms (in which it has already been done many times before), but the town of "Pleasantville" is such an extreme exaggeration that I never bought the fantasy world presented within it. This is something that is necessary to the viewer when it comes to films involving fantasy--we must believe in the world depicted. It didn't work for me at all. Sex was something that was never talked about on shows from the 1950's, but I'm sure Mrs. Cleaver (Yes, I mean the fictional character) knew what it was! I also think that the characters from those shows also knew that there was a world beyond their own town, that there were days when it would rain, and that the local sports teams didn't always win.
Director Gary Ross seems pretty unsure of his material himself, and that is probably why the film keeps defining itself; within the last half-hour of the movie, a young boy punches another. Those watching look on in surprise and wonder. "They've never seen violence before" someone a few rows behind me in the theatre said. Well, duh! I thought this was clear as soon as the movie started (but I still never bought it), leaving the audience to defend the monotony of the screenplay. At one point, William H. Macy looks all over the place for his wife, looking for his dinner. "I feel sorry for him," an uncomfortable audience member said.
When the movie is not overdoing itself in explaining its world, it is trying to shock us with sexual humor, also in the same, tedious, overblown way--after Paul Walker is deflowered by Reese Witherspoon, the camera LINGERS on him, emphasizing his shocked and dumbfounded expression, milking it for ungenuine laughs. The film then TEDIOUSLY expands this single joke commonly throughout the movie, showing us shocking images of kinky sex acts, some I can't even mention here, for my comments won't be posted (HINT: one involves a popular number in the double digits), and when we're not seeing the acts of sex or the blown-away expressions of those who have just experienced it, we get some really "shocking" conversation; Reese Witherspoon has been shacking up with every guy in sight, then educates her mother on ways to "please" herself--Oh, MY! Another shock, provoking embarrassed and courteous laughs from the audience.
The final scenes of the film dissolve into complete disorder; Don Knotts starts getting angry at the kids for their disruption of Pleasantville, and goes quite mad, but what was he expecting in the first place, and why does his demeanor change so radically from that of the first act? Other characters end their stories without solutions, not that its wrong to leave certain stories open-ended--I just feel that Ross didn't know what he wanted to do with most of his characters. The final scene "Gee, you know you're pretty smart" is poorly written, tacked-on, unsatisfying, and forced.
I think what bothers me most about the film is that, since these banal characters are just imaginary, dull caricatures of 50's television shows, who don't even really exist, why should we care about them? At one point, Tobey Macguire's character is offered the chance to leave Pleasantville, but he turns it down--he wants to make a "difference" here. WHO CARES! It's just a TV show! Maybe I would have cared if I found the world of Pleasantville to be believable, but I never did. Grade: D