Pleasantville

1998

Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy

35
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 86% · 98 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79% · 100K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.5/10 10 135835 135.8K

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Plot summary

Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.


Uploaded by: FREEMAN
April 16, 2019 at 09:17 AM

Director

Top cast

Reese Witherspoon as Jennifer
William H. Macy as George Parker
Marley Shelton as Margaret Henderson
Tobey Maguire as David
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.02 GB
1280*714
English 2.0
PG-13
23.976 fps
2 hr 4 min
Seeds 9
1.98 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
PG-13
23.976 fps
2 hr 4 min
Seeds 25

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gavin6942 8 / 10

Brilliant

Two 1990s teenagers find themselves in a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.

This is a surprisingly strong role for Reese Witherspoon, who tends to be an overrated actress. If anything, she is actually underrated here for how well she made Jenny her own character. The appearance of Don Knotts is a great touch, and William H. Macy is wonderful as always.

While a simple concept (kids getting sucked into the TV), the execution is a work of genius. Writer-director Gary Ross used this backdrop to explore race relations, the "good old days", changing cultures and mores... and exploring a range of "right and wrong". And underneath it all, it still remains a sense of humor and does not attempt to guilt trip the audience.

Reviewed by SnoopyStyle 8 / 10

cute gimmick turns funny turns profound

David (Tobey Maguire) is a geek in high school. Real life is diminishing expectations, family divorce and no female companionship. He's obsessed with an old TV show Pleasantville. While watching a Pleasantville marathon, he has a fight with his twin sister Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) and they break the TV remote. TV repairman (Don Knotts) shows up and give them a special remote which sends them into the show. They become George (William H. Macy) and Betty Parker (Joan Allen)'s kids Bud and Mary Sue. She's not happy until she sees her new boyfriend Skip Martin (Paul Walker). Bud is working at Bill Johnson (Jeff Daniels)'s soda shop. He falls for Margaret Henderson (Marley Shelton). The kids' interactions start changing the strange purity of Pleasantville and colors seeps into the world.

At first, this is a gimmick that has some cute aspects. Don Knotts adds to that sense of a cheap laugh. It has some good fun with Maguire and Witherspoon budding head. Then the deeper profound message seeps into the movie. It is gentle and yet undeniable. A couple of times, I feared the movie would push too hard like calling the people "color". It manages to maintain some distance and follow through on the message without overpowering it. This is quite a film.

Reviewed by MartinHafer 8 / 10

Don Knotts is magic...

Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon play brother and sister who are high school students in the present day (though they were 23 and 22 when they made the film). While you have no idea WHY, Don Knotts (yes, Don Knotts!) plays a magical TV repairman who gives them a bizarre looking remote that somehow transports them into a TV show that Tobey loves--"Pleasantville". They have no idea why this occurred or if it will ever end or if Knotts is god, but oddly neither questions this new world that is literally in black & white like an old episode of "Father Knows Best". However, unwittingly, their presence with their modern sensibilities and notions causes this seemingly idyllic world to start to slowly come apart at the seems. Notions such as freedom to choose, sex and individuality are missing in this world--and the two interlopers bring this to the plastic world of Pleasantville.

By the way, Pleasantville is odd in many ways. First, all roads in town lead right back to town and no one has ever left the town or knows anything about the world outside. Second, books are blank inside and the people have no idea about what they contain. Third, when there is a fire, the fire department actually has no idea WHAT a fire is--they are only used to things you might see in the TV world--such as rescuing cats stuck in trees. In fact, how Tobey is able to finally convince the firemen to come to his house when there is an actual fire is pretty funny. There's a lot more that is strange about the town and it gets stranger when the influence of the two outsiders slowly causes actual colors to begin appearing in the monochrome world.

The film is a strange surreal sort of thing that is truly unique. Using colorization techniques, they are able to achieve amazing results that seem to jump off the screen. It's all a metaphor about how the idyllic life of 50s TV was actually quite stilted and repressive, though Maquire and Witherspoon's life in the real world isn't exactly great either--their parents are divorced and Witherspoon is, to put it nicely, a bit shallow and slutty. A happy medium would sure be nice--combining the best of both worlds--and I think this is a valid interpretation of the film's intent. Where exactly it all goes and the unexpected consequences are something you'll just have to learn about yourself, so watch the film.

Overall, a rather interesting and innovative film. It was nominated for three Oscars and deserved kudos in these departments--for sets, costume design and music. While I wouldn't put it in the category of must-see, it is interesting and worth seeing--even if the ending is a bit too drawn out in some ways. The only real misgiving I have is the way SOME might see the film and come to the conclusions that the 1950s were all bad and repressive--a rather oversimplification of the era, to say the least. This era, like all in our history, had its good and bad points and I worry that such a revisionist view of our past will be believed by young people seeing this movie--especially since films such as this are the only way most teens get their history. I know, as I've taught US and World History--kids are THAT gullible...really. I can't really blame the folks from "Pleasantville" for this lack of awareness in teens, but it did concern me as I watched the film.

By the way, one thing I liked about the film was the courtroom scene and William Macy's acting. While he said very, very little, his face showed so much expression--now THAT'S acting!

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