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Pleasantville

1998

Action / Comedy / Drama / Fantasy

40
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 86% · 98 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 79% · 100K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.5/10 10 140289 140.3K

Plot summary

Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.

Director

Top cast

Reese Witherspoon as Jennifer
Paul Walker as Skip Martin
Tobey Maguire as David
William H. Macy as George Parker
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
1.02 GB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
2 hr 4 min
Seeds 8
1.98 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
2 hr 4 min
Seeds 51

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Isaac5855 8 / 10

A brilliant and vastly underrated cinematic experience

PLEASANTVILLE had to be one of the biggest surprises I've ever had at the movies. This superbly mounted and completely winning fantasy starred Toby Maguire and Reese Witherspoon as a contemporary teenage brother and sister who are magically transported into a black and white television show called "Pleasantville", a show similar to "Leave it to Beaver" or "I Love Lucy", where everyone in the town knows each other, where the fire department only saves cats from trees and never put out fires and where there are no pages in the books or toilets in the bathrooms. Maguire's character is a "Pleasantville" trivia expert so he knows everyone there and everything that's going to happen but sis Witherspoon is a stranger in a strange land whose introduction of 1990's sensibilities to the citizens of this town brings about extraordinary changes. The film is beautifully made with a very smart screenplay and superb performances, the best of which is by Joan Allen, who is luminous as Betty, the mother in the sitcom who is shocked at first but learns to accept the 1990's coming to Pleasantville. Yes, it may borrow from other movies, but there is a freshness and originality to this movie that is most engaging and anytime with Don Knotts is time well spent.
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Reviewed by gavin6942 8 / 10

Brilliant

Two 1990s teenagers find themselves in a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.

This is a surprisingly strong role for Reese Witherspoon, who tends to be an overrated actress. If anything, she is actually underrated here for how well she made Jenny her own character. The appearance of Don Knotts is a great touch, and William H. Macy is wonderful as always.

While a simple concept (kids getting sucked into the TV), the execution is a work of genius. Writer-director Gary Ross used this backdrop to explore race relations, the "good old days", changing cultures and mores... and exploring a range of "right and wrong". And underneath it all, it still remains a sense of humor and does not attempt to guilt trip the audience.

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