One of last year's most mysteriously overrated movies, Pleasantville squanders an absolutely dynamite premise--'90s kids strangely catapulted into an aw-shucks '50s sitcom--by committing the cardinal sin of foregrounding what ought to have been the film's subtext. So intent was writer/director Gary Ross (who'd previously penned Big, Dave, stuff like that) on scoring allegorical brownie-points ("NO COLOREDS" reads a sign in a shop window, even as the fictional b&w townspeople get Ted Turner-colorized as they venture out of the stereotypical '50s sitcom box) that he plumb forgot to make the movie entertaining; stunning computer-generated color effects notwithstanding, it's a drab and listless couple of hours, and I spent a lot of the second half wistfully thinking of the dynamic pop energy that Robert Zemeckis brought to the somewhat similar Back to the Future. That said, the scene in which Tobey Maguire's impassioned paean to the joys of literature is set to the stuttering drum solo from Brubeck's "Take Five" is such a perfect, magical amalgam of sound and image that it very nearly justifies a watch all by its lonesome. There may be hope for Ross yet. Next time, Gary: less concept, more enjoyment. Not recommended. (M. D'Angelo)
Pleasantville
(New Line, 124 min., PG-13, avail. Mar. 23, <b>DVD</b>) Vol. 14, Issue 2
Pleasantville
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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