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Release Date: Oct 23, 1998; Rated: PG-13; Length: 124 Minutes; Genres: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy; With: Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, William H. Macy, Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon
C+
By Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Lisa Schwarzbaum is a film critic for EW

PLEASANTVILLE (PG-13) The title refers to a fictional '50s American town and black-and-white TV show -- rerun, for eternity, on cable -- that teenage twins David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) find themselves thrown into. Suddenly, they are Bud and Mary Sue, enrolled in a high school full of classmates who have never gone All the Way. It's not long before the twins start tampering with the show's plotlines, encouraging independent thought, and provoking strange new emotions in the blissfully ignorant townspeople. And with each expression of passion, someone or something bursts into color. Pleasantville is ultramodern and beautiful, but technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends. C+


Posted Nov 06, 1998
 

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