Writer/Producer/Director: Gary Ross
Cinematographer: John Lindley
Costume Design: Judianna Makovsky
Production Design: Jay Hart & Jeannine Claudia Oppewall
Music by: Randy Newman
George: William H. Macy
Betty: Joan Allen
David: Tobey Maguire
Jennifer: Reese Witherspoon |
Ever watched those re-runs of 1950s TV family sitcom and wished that you could return to such an apparently hassle free world?
Well this is the premise underlying "Pleasantville", written, produced and directed by Gary Ross, who wrote the screenplays for "Big" and "Dave". "Pleasantville" is a modern day "Alice Through the Looking Glass", where the looking glass is a television set and the kids are 90s teenagers.
David (Tobey Maguire) is the nerdy son of a broken marriage. He spends his time lost in the world of "Pleasantville", a re-run of a 1950s sitcom, which seems to offer him all that he misses in his current life. He's set to win the trivia quiz which is on television that night.
But his sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) has other ideas. She and David fight over access to the remote control and suddenly find themselves transported back into the black and white world of "Pleasantville" as Bud and Mary Sue, the two teenage characters in its central "happy family".
Whilst David is immediately at home as Bud, Jennifer is anything but comfortable, she is no Mary Sue and objects to being forced to wear "like three pounds of underwear". Her attitudes and liberated ways create some wonderfully comic moments early in the film.
David and Jennifer inevitably begin to threaten the safe predictability of "Pleasantville". Colour beings to seep into the black and white world, along with passion, hatred, aggression, tears and even rain.
Joan Allen ("The Ice Storm", "Nixon", "The Crucible") is wonderful as Betty Parker, the tight laced 50s wife who beings to discover herself. While William H Macy ("Boogie Nights", "Fargo", "ER") is suitably monochromatic as her husband - "Honey I'm home". And I loved Jeff Daniels as Mr Johnson the regimented soda jerk who discovers art and love.
"Pleasantville" has been nominated in this year's Academy Awards for Best Art Direction - Set Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Music.
If you love the music and the fashions of the 50s this is the film for you.
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