This delightful comic fable begins in full colour in 1998, when an introverted, TV-watching teen, David (Tobey Maguire), and his sister Jennifer (Reece Witherspoon) are magically transported into reruns of a 1950s black-and-white sitcom called Pleasantville.
Everything seems picture perfect in this cookie-cutter small town, where family values rule, nothing ruffles the primped surface, and the firemen are mainly employed scaling trees to rescue little kittens.
Like time-travelling classic Back to the Future (1985), director Gary Ross’s film plays on nostalgia for the good old days of the 1950s but cleverly subverts this backward-looking impulse by showing how this world of conservatism and small-mindedness is transformed by its visitors from the future.
As David and Jennifer’s modernising influence is felt in the community, Pleasantville gradually introduces splashes of colour into its monochrome palette, a wonderfully cinematic ploy to prove that – where some things are concerned – time is never best standing still.
David, ‘Bud Parker’
Tobey Maguire Jennifer Wagner, ‘Mary Sue Parker’
Reese Witherspoon Bill Johnson
Jeff Daniels Betty Parker
Joan Allen George Parker
William H. Macy Big Bob
J.T. Walsh TV repair man
Don Knotts Margaret
Marley Shelton Mary Sue
Natalie Ramsey Bud
Kevin Connors Howard
Giuseppe Andrews Kimmy
Marissa Ribisi Christin
Jenny Lewis Mark
Justin Nimmo Mr Simpson
Harry Singleton Skip Martin
Paul Walker Betty Jean
Dawn Cody Lisa Anne
Maggie Lawson Peggy Jane
Andrea Taylor Miss Peters
Lela Ivey Tommy
Jim Patric Doctor Henderson
Charles C. Stevenson Jr Marge Jenkins
Nancy Lenehan Gus
Weston Blakesley Roy
Patrick O’Brien Ralph
Jim Antonio Mary
Kristin Rudrüd Will
Erik Macarthur Whitey
David Tom Pete
Johnny Moran Police Chief Dan
James Keane
Director
Gary Ross
Video
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