Pleasantville is a 1998 fantasy comedy drama about two teenage siblings David and Jennifer, played by Toby McGuire and Reece Witherspoon, are transported to the 1950's TV show town of Pleasantville where the whole world is black and white. They have to try and fit and be the characters in the show but their presence causes the world to change and things start to appear in colour.It is directed and written by Gary Ross who has also written the script for Big and has written and directed The Hunger Games and upcoming Oceans 8 film. It also stars Jeff Daniels,Joan Allen and William H Macy.
The whole structure of the film is narrative based as the two siblings are trying to escape from the town but along the way they meet characters in the show and inadvertently change their views and how life is in the town. All of the film is very traditionally shot and made with establishing shots showing us what part of the town we are in or over the shoulder shots when two characters are talking to each other.
The performances in the film are all very good as well. McGuire and Witherspoon as the siblings have believable chemistry and effectively show the feeling of being a fish out of water. The rest of the cast are also good as civilians trying to figure out what has happened and come to terms with how life can be.
Colour plays the most vital part in the whole film. It is used to show the characters not conforming to society and being who they want to be and shows people's true emotions coming out. From when we arrive in Pleasantville we see the whole world is black and white and that is a contrast to the 1990's world we saw at the beginning. As colour starts to randomly appear it makes all the shots look very beautiful. There will occasionally only be a red rose in a scene and the colour pops. Other times a whole character will be in colour in a black and white street. The us of this looks akin to MGM movies of the 1950's. At the time of its release this was the film with most digital effects but then it was beaten in 1999 by Star Wars Episode 1:The Phantom Menace.
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| Scene from To Kill a Mockingbird and underneath scene from Pleasantville |
The film may be a comedy but it also covers a wide range of topics that are all very thought provoking. There are links to pre justice,racism, being accepted into society and people fearing change. Some of these topics are made quite prominent like shop signs that say 'No Coloured' or in a court scene where the people in black and white are on the ground floor but the people in colour are on the balconies, this scene also seems to be an homage to a scene in To Kill a Mockingbird.
The film received a positive critical reception when it was released but was quite a finical bomb.it only made $49.8 million dollars on a budget of $60 million.
However it also was quite successful at award ceremonies. Toby Mcguire won the Saturn award for performance by a young actor or actress and Joan Allen won for Supporting actress. She also won an award for supporting actress at the Boston society of film critics award and William H Macy won for supporting actor. Pleasantville was also nominated for three academy awards for costume design, original music score and production design.
Overall this is a very funny film that also has an important message to tell especially in today's society and seema to very resonant. The film is also shot incredibly beautifully and some of the scenes are breathtaking to look at.
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