Plot: What’s it about?
David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are siblings who both control of the living room one night while mom is out of town. Jennifer wants the room for her date, and David wants to watch a marathon of his favorite show, Pleasantville. Pleasantville is the typical 50’s sitcom, where everything is perfect and abundant. They fight over the remote control that night, and it breaks. Mere seconds later, a strange TV repair-man (Don Knotts) is at the door with a new one…much to their suprise. The repair-man quizzes David on Pleasantville trivia, and discoveres David knows everything about the show. After he leaves, the siblings once again tussle over the remote, and this time get zapped into the television, right smack dab in Pleasantville. Black and white even. Not only are they in Pleasantville, but they are now the kids of the main couple, they are the stars!
After a while, Jennifer seduces the most popular boy, and has sex with him. The next day, he is in color, and for the first time ever, he misses a shot in practice. He tells his friends about sex, they tell people, so on and so forth, until the town, save a few staunch committee members, are enjoying this new way of life, and turning color! The committee takes his harshly, and tries to get everything back to normal. There is now fire, rain, and books, none of which ever appeared before. It becomes sort of a battle between the b/w people, and the colors. It’s a hard movie to fully explain, and it has to be viewed to understand. The story is fantastic, and the visuals, oh my god, the visuals.
The black and white and color scens are mixed together so well, it’s breath-taking at times. The movie is a true masterpiece of visuals and cinematography, to say the least. You have to see it to believe it. Fleshing out the cast are William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, and J.T. Walsh, all of whom put on a superb show, and really bring Pleasantville to life. There is no reason to pass this disc up, because it has everything, perfect video, audio, a great feature, and a block-buster set of features to enhance enjoyment. Trust me on this one, you have to buy this disc.
Video: How does it look?
Perfect, crystak clear visuals. This is pivotal, because the visuals are key to the movie’s drawing power, and the total absence of grain, discolorment, artifacts, and bleeding make sure the vision of the film comes through with flying colors.
Audio: How does it sound?
Again, perfect, the dialogue is smoothly mixed into the music and effects, making sure we can hear every little cliche’ of Pleasantville. Not too many effects, but some scenes have large scale effects, and the audio delivers in those scenes.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Buckle up, because this disc is the total Pleasantville experience. First off, a very enlightening and informative commentary by director/writer Gary Ross sets the tone for the subtleties of the film. The commentary is one of the best I have heard, and keeps on track, rarely rambling, but mainly giving small clues to small things, which make the film more enjoyable on the next viewing. Next up is a fantastic behind the scenes documentary, “The Art of Pleasantville”, which again, adds a new appreciation for this picture. An isolated muscial score, with composer Randy Newman’s commentary is also available, letting us discover what inspired the soudntrack as well as the visuals. Also included is a Fiona Apple music video, storyboard gallery, theatrical trailer, color set-up, and DVD-ROM content as well.
