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movie review - Pleasantville

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a thinly veiled piece about segregated, racist America in the '50s. The setting is a black-and-white '50s sitcom a la Leave It Beaver et al. Two mid-90s teens are zapped by a dubious TV repairman's gizmo into the show. The addition of the teens proves too much for the little colorless world, and everything starts to change. First, colour appears when the kids start having sex and using words like 'cool'. Then, it turns out there's an outside world beyond the simple handful of streets that have always made up Pleasantville.

The whole thing is unfortunately 'Hollywood' in that you just know that everything is going to be conquered by love or the equivalent there-of. When the movie is actually revealing something (such as the 50s/60s-style mob scene where the 'coloreds' store is smashed and books are burned), it just seems a little lackluster. The flip side of the Hollywood effect shows in the main love story, between the mother (Allen) and the budding artist (Daniels) - there's nothing more to it than some shared, blank stares.

The metamorphosis of the characters in the '50s construct is pretty engaging, but being asked to believe that an 18-year-old - whose only apparent talents lie in television trivia - has something to teach not only the TV characters but his parent about life is a little thin.

This is an entertaining flick, but it's more disappointing than meaningful. This only matters because it is so clearly trying to strive for the latter.

Not recommended.