Review of Pleasantville (1998) by Avid C — 29 Dec 2012

Pleasantville can be enjoyed by everyone and watched on a regular basis. The depth of its analysis on how we judge others, how we facet ourselves to fit, on bigotry, education, and civil society is well hidden by an all enveloping funny light tirade.

Anyone can enjoy the humor of the movie, which has a rib-cracking prevalence in the beginning. However, if you so choose, you can easily explore all the issues it brings up as the story line develops.

All the characters are well played. Tobey McGuire is certainly giving a much better performance than in any of his Spiderman movies where there's little room for psychological development. Reese Witherspoon is adorable as she explores the evolving duality of Jennifer. And Joan Allen will tug at each and every one of your sensible chord.

Visually, its all subtleties and perfection. The dialogs are powerful, the story entrancing, the editing flawless, as is the scenario.

You can watch it many times, until you get every nuance, and then you'll watch it some more just appreciate the real nature of the movie and how it all comes together.

A must.