Pleasantville

Name: Pleasantville
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Comedy
Released: October 23, 1998
Duration: 124 min
Rating: 71
Cast: Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire

1998

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 264 Ratings

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8.6

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8.6	User Score Universal acclaim based on 264 Ratings

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Pleasantville

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Movie Details & Credits

New Line Cinema | Release Date: October 23, 1998 | PG-13

Starring: Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire

Summary: In Gary Ross' daring modern fairy tale Pleasantville, an entire fictional town is granted a chance to experience the comedies, and dangers of real life. In this fantastical adventure, two late 20th Century teenagers (Maguire, Witherspoon) accidentally bring living color to a mysterious suburb trapped in a black-and-white 50's utopia -- andIn Gary Ross' daring modern fairy tale Pleasantville, an entire fictional town is granted a chance to experience the comedies, and dangers of real life. In this fantastical adventure, two late 20th Century teenagers (Maguire, Witherspoon) accidentally bring living color to a mysterious suburb trapped in a black-and-white 50's utopia -- and set off a revolution. (New Line Cinema)… Expand

Director: Gary Ross

Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Comedy

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 124 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

The 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. Read full review

Joe Leydon

Ingeniously conceived and impressively executed, Pleasantville is a provocative, complex and surprisingly anti-nostalgic parable. Read full review

Keith Phipps

To concentrate on the minor faults of a fable as beautiful and unusual as Pleasantville would be missing the point. Read full review

Charles Taylor

It's tough not to respond to the visual cleverness of Pleasantville. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

The results are charming if rarely thrilling, with outstanding performances from Joan Allen and William H. Macy. Read full review

J. Hoberman

Funny for about half an hour, Pleasantville thereafter becomes an increasingly lugubrious, ultimately exasperating mix of technological wonder and ideological idiocy. Read full review

Edward Guthmann

When Ross gets serious and grasps for allegorical import, Pleasantville bogs down in mixed ambitions. Read full review

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User Reviews

Glazz

Feb 26, 2015

Pleasantville!
The two stories Genesis and Pleasantville have many similarity and differences. Comparing the story they have almost the same moral and almost same way of change. Without comparing the stories how we did. These two stories have a lot of similarities and differences.
SomePleasantville!
The two stories Genesis and Pleasantville have many similarity and differences. Comparing the story they have almost the same moral and almost same way of change. Without comparing the stories how we did. These two stories have a lot of similarities and differences.
Some similarities of the two stories are the themes “Change” and “Knowledge”. Change is something that happened in both stories but at different times. Change Is Important to these stories by giving the story a background. For example change caused the conflict in Pleasantville by changing people behavior and color. This caused conflict because Jennifer Added sex to the world of Pleasantville. This caused many distractions for the basketball team causing them to miss their shots. In the story of Genesis has immediate change when they eat the apple, there for they don’t get the perfect lifestyle anymore. The gain of Knowledge Is something in the stories, as the characters progressed farther in the story. Having the Knowledge in the stories made the outcome a lot different on how the viewer perceives it and how they would have. With the similarities there are also differences.
In the two stories they have many opposing differences such as how they are presented and the meaning behind them. These two stories are presented differently fist off that one is a book and one is a movie, but besides that these stories are different by the time they were based and written. Pleasantville was set in a more modern time around the 1940’s to 1950’s while Genesis was written way back in the BCE. The meaning behind these stories where almost exactly opposite. While Genesis meant to be set up perfectly and should be kept that way, never to change. On the other side of things in Pleasantville is try to say don’t do what your “supposed” unless it’s necessary.
The theme of this story was the effect little changes make big differences happen. Then this is put to the stories it makes them really similar. Using this theme makes the stories entertaining, and fun to watch/Read. Without the theme of each of these stories, I’m pretty sure that I would not understand the stories as well as I do now.
Between the two stories the difference and the similarities really tie together. Both stories where entertaining but still had a meaning behind it. While these meaning maybe complete opposite ideas/meaning but they still have many similarities in quite a few words.… Expand

8 of 10 users found this helpful82

Appendage7

Jan 18, 2020

Danny Strong and Marc Blucas appeared on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 - 2003).

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

FromHolland;)

Oct 30, 2005

I really enjoyed watching this movie.

2 of 2 users found this helpful

crazygabby22

Feb 26, 2015

Pleasantville Essay.
Imagine a world where everything is perfect, in the movie Pleasantville and the story of Adam and Eve everything is perfect, or is it? In this essay I’m going to be talking about how in a perfect world things can change and how things can change when you least expectPleasantville Essay.
Imagine a world where everything is perfect, in the movie Pleasantville and the story of Adam and Eve everything is perfect, or is it? In this essay I’m going to be talking about how in a perfect world things can change and how things can change when you least expect it, but also how the story and the movie are so similar and different at the same time.
There are so many similarities and differences between the movie and the story, and you can see what most of them are, like some differences is how in the story Adam and Eve are man and wife and in the movie Jennifer and Buddy happen to be sister and brother. Another difference would be that Adam and Eve live in a garden while Jennifer and Buddy live in a town. And one more difference would be that in the story Adam and Eve live in a colorful world but Jennifer and Buddy live in a black and white world because it’s a TV show.

Now there are similarities also and some of them might be that in both the book and the movie they involve two people who are boy and girl, also there similar because they both go through a big change and it changes their whole world. Another similarity is how they both have people who represent god like Adam and Eve are with god and in the book a TV repair man represents god in a way because he sent them to Pleasantville, and one last one would be that both worlds are perfect.
Now I want to say that I think that they did a an amazing job on the way they compered the movie to the story of Adam and Eve and that you can learn a lot from them and that the message was kind of similar in a away like the message I think was that change is good and don’t be afraid to change.

To sum it all up they both have many differences and similarities and they both tell you a message, I honestly loved both the movie and story and how they tell you change Isn’t that bad sometimes.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Deathstroke987

Feb 26, 2015

Pleasantville and the reading from genesis have many differences and similarities. In this essay I will give my own review on the movie and explain those differences and similarities. Both the movie and the reading have much to write to about so sit back, and relax.
Well to start off ifPleasantville and the reading from genesis have many differences and similarities. In this essay I will give my own review on the movie and explain those differences and similarities. Both the movie and the reading have much to write to about so sit back, and relax.
Well to start off if you didn't know the movie is a representation of the reading but told in its own way, The Garden of Eden turned into a town with people who are perfect. Adam represented by a character named Bud and Eve represented by a character named Mary Sue. So Pleasantville the Garden of Eden in the way where nothing is bad and everything is perfect. This is something big in the story except for The Garden of Eden doesn't turn out that way. Pleasantville, even after tampered with, turns out to still be perfect.
Another similarity between the movie and the story are the characters. Bud and Mary Sue are extremely similar to Adam and Eve. People are meant to change the way they live for example, Mary sue and Bud changed Pleasantville by adding color. A difference between the two are the fact that Eve is obedient until she was persuaded to do what was wrong unlike Mary Sue who was naturally bad until the end of the movie where she reads the books and puts on the glasses then becomes like everyone else.
Also a difference between the story and the movie is that Pleasantville was meant to change the way it was it was meant to have color meant to change instead of perfect it turned into working their way to perfection. In the story the Garden of Eden was not meant to change it was meant to be perfect it should never change yet when Eve took a bite out of the apple God decided to kick both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and look elsewhere for salvation.
Finally my thoughts on the way the director portrayed the story in the movie was not bad at all, yes there where some places where the movie could use some improvement but all in all it wasn't bad. For example they could have used a better way to show that it can be a bad thing messing with people’s life, but other than that I did think the director did a good job on the portrayal of the story of the Garden of Eden. The movie did have a lot of major differences and similarities, but in all I did like the movie I enjoyed the character build and the story line, finally the rating 9.5/10… Expand

2 of 5 users found this helpful23

JLuis_001

May 26, 2019

Deceptively simple, especially considering the social comments with which it deals the narrative and especially if you consider that even being a comedy there's a latent darkness at the center of the story.

What can I say? It caught me more than I expected.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

cbhcbh

Feb 26, 2015

Pleasantville movie review
I recently saw the movie Pleasantville; overall it was a good flic with few honest flaws. I was able to understand most connections and the great acts of symbolism threw out the film. Now before I begin I’d like to say this review is coming from a high school teenPleasantville movie review
I recently saw the movie Pleasantville; overall it was a good flic with few honest flaws. I was able to understand most connections and the great acts of symbolism threw out the film. Now before I begin I’d like to say this review is coming from a high school teen that dose has religious beliefs and morals. And I believe this movie was a great adaptation of the story of Adam and Eve from genesis. And this was a good movie and keep in mind this movie dose have sexual references and parcel nudity.
First off I’d like to let you know this review is coming from a teen. But I do follow Christian morals and have a lot of knowledge about the original bile story. First the story is set in the Garden of Eden, a perfect place designed by God with no sin. God made Adam, the first man out of the dirt of the earth in his image. Then god saw Adam was lonely had had no mate or helper, even out of all the animals Adam had just named. So god put Adam into a deep sleep and removed one of his ribs to form Eve, the first woman.
Within the garden there was god Adam and eve but there was only one rule, shall not eat from the tree of knowledge with good and evil. Since were human eve wondered toward the forbidden tree, then a snake/serpent appeared. The snake told eve to try the fruit, its fine. After eve took a bite she offered Adam a bite. After they relised they were nude and covered themselves with the nearby vegetation. God called out to them and asked them why they are covered and hiding. For god know what they had done and banished them out of the perfect garden to toil over the earth and have pain with child birth.
The movie PLEASENTVILLE is an adaptation of this story. So within the film there are many connections between the two. First color is a large part of the change, red represents lust, we see this in the apples and roses on lover’s lane. Pink is love innocent love like the cherry blossoms that bud and his girlfriend drives through. Green means envy like the new car in front of the dinner throughout the movie. The best thing that shows how the color shows is the mural of the town ion the side of the police department. The color is a true word less symbol.
Last Adam is resented by bud, quit and laid back. Eve is represented by Jennie takes charge and truly brings sin into the world. Overall this movie was good and an awesome adaptation of the original bible story. Both stories begin perfect and controlled by a main male person, god is represnted by the tv man.… Expand

1 of 13 users found this helpful112

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40	#40 Best Movie of 1998
14	#14 Most Discussed Movie of 1998
41	#41 Most Shared Movie of 1998