When I saw the movie trailer for "Pleasantville," I was immediately reminded of "Stay Tuned," the disastrous"real people stuck in TV land" movie starring John Ritter and Pam Dawber. I originally thought that "Pleasantville" was gonna be the same thing. Fortunately, I read some great "film geek" reviews on Harry Knowles' excellent "Ain't It Cool News" web site, and I became very interested in seeing it.
Once again, I got to see a movie for free at an advanced screening. I love that. The chance to see a movie for free before it's officially released is a great feeling. The problem is, it attracts a HUGE crowd, and the theater is usually filled with people who tend to babble throughout the movie. During "Pleasantville," you could hear a pin drop. The entire audience was completely absorbed. Afterwards, there was even applause.
The visuals are amazing. The intersection of color with black & white is absolutely flawless. I hate to seem like I have no kinda vocabulary, but it simply looks really cool! Maybe some people won't be impressed by the whole thing, but I thought it looked amazing.
"Pleasantville" was written and directed by Gary Ross. This is his debut as a director, and it's a very impressive debut. As a writer, he wrote "Big" and "Dave," two very good, very critically-acclaimed movies. The man has talent. It stars Tobey Maguire (who was also in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "The Ice Storm," and "S.F.W."), and he does a great job here. Even if he WAS in "Empire Records." It also stars Reese Witherspoon, the cute one from "Freeway," "Fear," and she was also in "S.F.W." with Tobey Maguire. Supporting roles are filled by some of today's great, underappreciated actors and actresses like William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, and the late J.T. Walsh. Also, though I won't call it a Travolta-like comeback, Don Knotts makes an appearance. That guy's funny-lookin'.
Although the
movie trailer makes it seem like a lame comedy, "Pleasantville" is one of
the most thought-provoking movies I've ever seen. It's filled with multiple
layers of subtext, so there's some thinking involved. Also, you leave asking
yourself a lotta questions about society today.