Pleasantville

What’s the Story?

David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are well aware of the messy complications of the modern world. David retreats into reruns of "Pleasantville," an an idyllic black and white 1950s television show. And Jennifer is something of a self-described "slut." When they get ahold of a magic remote control, David and Jennifer are changed into Pleasantville's Bud and Mary Sue. The twins can't help reveal Pleasantville's limits, and begin to transform it. Mary Sue mischievously introduces the idea of sex to classmates, and then, more sensitively, to her Pleasantville mother (Joan Allen). Bud tells them about a world where people can go against status quo. As the characters begin to change, they and their surroundings bloom into color. But some residents of Pleasantville are threatened and terrified by the changes. "No colored" signs appear in store windows, new rules are imposed, and tensions mount.

Is It Any Good?

High schoolers may appreciate the way that the twins, at first retreating in different ways from the problems of the modern world, find that the rewards of the examined life make it ultimately worthwhile. Parents and teens alike will find many things to think and talk about after watching PLEASANTVILLE, including the movie's parallels to Nazi Germany (book burning) and American Jim Crow laws ("No colored" signs), and the challenges of independent thinking.

Also intriguing is the path of Jennifer's character. At first, she thinks that it is sex that turns the black and white characters into color. But when she stays "pasty," she realizes that the colors reveal something more subtle and meaningful -- the willingness to challenge the accepted and opening oneself up to honest reflection about one's own feelings and longings.