Rated PG-13
Reviewed by: Frank
November 4, 1998

Pleasantville is a technically perfect film that follows a twisted path to nowhere.

In a black and white world filled with Hudsons, Henry Js and Studebakers, emotions suddenly activate cone cells in the eyes of the citizens of the fifties TV world of Pleasantville.

The teens change first, followed by the women, but the middle age men who are in charge are the most resistant to the splash of color.  The idea of woman discussing sex and not having dinner waiting at day's end cause problems.

Toby Maguire, the invader from the future, leads the revolution with help from Don Knotts, the TV repair man who sends Maguire and Reese Witherspoon, his sister, back to the safe past.

What begins as a spoof lead by the comparison of present day and fifties sex activity, moves to book burning and separation of the black and white people from the colored people.  The change is disruptive and interesting but the result is confusing and without direction.