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100The kind of parable that encourages us to re-evaluate the good old days and take a fresh look at the new world we so easily dismiss as decadent.
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90This uncommonly clever, surprisingly poignant fairy tale packs a social wallop that we're not quite prepared for.
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90Ingenious fantasy.
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90Ingeniously conceived and impressively executed, Pleasantville is a provocative, complex and surprisingly anti-nostalgic parable.
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90Magical, visually exciting, affecting even in its sincere hokeyness, and extremely provocative.
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88Giddily inventive.
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88Not only is Pleasantville a satire, a fantasy, and a visual marvel, but it's the best kind of feel-good movie.
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80Offers effortless charm, wit, and originality in spades.
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80To concentrate on the minor faults of a fable as beautiful and unusual as Pleasantville would be missing the point.
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80Charming and imaginative.
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80I can't get over the nagging feeling that Pleasantville's beguiling spell was cast by a real magician, only to be carelessly broken by the same clumsy charlatan.
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80What makes up for the, at times, slow-moving theatrics is the physical beauty of Pleasantville.
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75Ross's comedy isn't as inventive as "The Truman Show," which it resembles in some ways, but it explores interesting ideas with nimble humor.
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75While amusing and sometimes touching, Pleasantville is far from challenging.
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75Delightful as it often is, the picture suffers fom the same structural and thematic tidiness, even smugness, that it nominally opposes.
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70It's tough not to respond to the visual cleverness of Pleasantville.
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70The results are charming if rarely thrilling, with outstanding performances from Joan Allen and William H. Macy.
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70Terrific idea, brilliantly worked out on a technical level.
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70Eventually falls into the same candy-coated trap it's trying to expose. But the fact that a movie can acknowledge the trap exists is a step in the right direction.
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70A complex, entertaining film that may have more ideas than it can handle, but certainly has real ideas.
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70An epic-size, largely entertaining parable of repression and awakening.
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70Lacks the edge and depth of a truly inspired work.
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67May not be as successful as it is ambitious, but you could do worse than to spend a few hours there.
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More clever than coherent.
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60His (Ross) sophisticated handling -- and the efforts of his able cast, notably the stellar Joan Allen -- produces a surprisingly accomplished cumulative effect.
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60Funny for about half an hour, Pleasantville thereafter becomes an increasingly lugubrious, ultimately exasperating mix of technological wonder and ideological idiocy.
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58Technical elegance and fine performances mask the shallowness of a story as simpleminded as the '50s TV to which it condescends; certainly it's got none of the depth, poignance, and brilliance of "The Truman Show," the recent TV-is-stifling drama that immediately comes to mind.
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50When Ross gets serious and grasps for allegorical import, Pleasantville bogs down in mixed ambitions.
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50Glum and preachy.
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50The movie's simplistic storyline does not match its stunning visual accomplishments: Pleasantville's story is drawn from a palette that's strictly limited to black-and-white.
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50Ross might have been better served by dismissing verisimilitude altogether and going for a real fable-fable to make what is essentially a very simple point about the dangers and rewards of accepting life's beautiful risks.
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50Ross' missive is earnest and well-intentioned, but it's difficult not to feel that his film both runs on too long and overreaches its dramatic resources in its attempt to deliver it.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 7 out of 8
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Mixed: 1 out of 8
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Negative: 0 out of 8
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FromHolland;)9I really enjoyed watching this movie.
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JackL.9
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JustinM.9