Days after seeing this, I find myself still saying things like "My stars, Debbie! Don't you look fetching!" and "Goodness!" The reason for it, strangely, is the delight I felt about this movie, which is not supposed to be set in the actual 1957 or a parody of 1957. This movie is supposed to evoke the feel of those cheesy Douglas Sirk too-perfect Technicolor melodramas for the time by standing alongside them, looking like them and treating its subjects in the manner that those movies did. It is, as best it can be, a fun old movie (that just happens to have been made today).
It's almost impossible to describe to people who aren't familiar with Douglas Sirk. (Even if someone's seen "Imitation of Life," they don't necessarily associate Sirk with it.) The movie's like an episode of "Leave it to Beaver," only Ward's fighting his attraction to guys and June's main confidante is her black male gardener. They try to maintain their idyllic appearance in the society, though the issues that they can't completely comprehend nor put into words are tearing apart their world.
This was everything I wanted "Pleasantville" to be. But it's better than that because it represents its '50s movie culture subject without making fun of it, just going along with the joke completely straight-faced. At the same time, it manages to say more about the issues it faces by placing them in that environment, forcing its characters to confront things that are completely alien to them.
I don't know if a lot of people are going to get this movie, and I fear that it's going to face a backlash. I overheard someone on the way out of the theater calling it "too stylized." To me, though, the style was, yes, campy but apt. The acting was across-the-board excellent. The movie was important, beautiful and fun.
It's almost impossible to describe to people who aren't familiar with Douglas Sirk. (Even if someone's seen "Imitation of Life," they don't necessarily associate Sirk with it.) The movie's like an episode of "Leave it to Beaver," only Ward's fighting his attraction to guys and June's main confidante is her black male gardener. They try to maintain their idyllic appearance in the society, though the issues that they can't completely comprehend nor put into words are tearing apart their world.
This was everything I wanted "Pleasantville" to be. But it's better than that because it represents its '50s movie culture subject without making fun of it, just going along with the joke completely straight-faced. At the same time, it manages to say more about the issues it faces by placing them in that environment, forcing its characters to confront things that are completely alien to them.
I don't know if a lot of people are going to get this movie, and I fear that it's going to face a backlash. I overheard someone on the way out of the theater calling it "too stylized." To me, though, the style was, yes, campy but apt. The acting was across-the-board excellent. The movie was important, beautiful and fun.