Pleasantville (movie)

Pleasantville is a 1998 movie starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Joan Allen, and Jeff Daniels. Don Knotts and J.T. Walsh are also featured. The film was written, produced, and directed by Gary Ross, who also performed those duties for the more recent film Seabiscuit, (which also starred Maguire and Macy).

The film received Oscar nominations for its music (by Randy Newman), costume design, and set decoration.

Warning: Plot details follow.

The story is about a brother and sister (Maguire and Witherspoon) who are magically transported into the world of a black-and-white television program, also titled Pleasantville, where it is the year 1958.

Pleasantville is much like the Springfield of Father Knows Best or the Mayfield of Leave It to Beaver. Maguire and Witherspoon play 1990s teenagers thrust into this world involuntarily. The changes they cause in Pleasantville, and the unexpected consequences to themselves, are highlighted through the use of color: the literally monochrome world of Pleasantville blossoms, in steps small and large, into a rainbow of colors from the palettes of Titian, Monet, Gauguin, Renoir, and van Gogh. Color is introduced slowly, subtly, deliberately; at first it may only touch a single flower, or the tongue of a girl. It is always motivated by the events of the film, particularly epiphanies experienced by the characters.

The change in color is the primary visual effect used to accent the changes to the people and the world they inhabit, changes which challenge the values and emphasis on continuity and conformity that many consider to be the hallmark of 1950s America.

The tagline for the film nicely summarizes what the movie is about: nothing is as simple as black and white.