Imagine a perfect, idealistic world, a world in black and white. No, really. Literally in black and white. The people, the shops, the houses. There is a clear line between right and wrong. There is good, and there is evil. This palette has no grey. There is no in between.
All the Pleasantville (1998) universe is to David (a memorable Toby Mcguire), a teenage high school loner, is a short escape away from his life’s reality—his single, absentee mother and popular, outgoing sister, Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon, before Legally Blonde happened). David’s Pleasantville family is a group of four: Mother Betty Parker (Joan Allen), Father George Parker (William H. Macy), and their two children, Bud and Mary Sue. The 1950s’ sitcom has the family happy and wholesome. George returns home to Betty’s perfectly cooked dinner. Bud wins the science fair award, and they laugh and joke about simple mistakes. Life is routine. The world exists within the city: school, maltshop, library—complete with a main street that ends and begins in itself.
“Unpleasant” emotions, sex, drugs, fluctuating weather, dirty words, violence—what renders our world three-dimensional and far from black and white—are unknown to Pleasantville’s citizens. The firemen save kittens from trees because there is simply no fire to battle against.
But all of that changed one stormy night.
David, the huge fan that he is, gears up for a Pleasantville marathon on television, at the same time as Jennifer catches up with him, demanding for the remote to watch the MTV awards airing coincidentally on the same night.
The two siblings wrestle for control of the remote, and break it in the process. The television turns out to be the latest model that requires a remote to run (The film is set against a 90’s backdrop.). Both of them stare at the blank screen, distraught, when a mysterious television repair man rings the bell.
David answers the door. The man quizzes him on Pleasantville knowledge, and hands him a “special” remote, which, he claims, “has more ‘oomph’ in it.” The man bids him good luck as he leaves, and the two siblings wrestle yet again.
The next minute, they find themselves in a black and white world, in a living room they have not seen before. Jennifer is wearing a sweater and a poodle skirt, David a crisp shirt and trousers outfit. Betty appears at the doorway and beckons them to eat breakfast.
Yes, it is what you think it is, but having a character like Jennifer in the confined, defined boundaries of Pleasantville does not promise a smooth future for either of them. As David and Jennifer navigate the seemingly “pleasant” and familiar waters of the idealistic world, they inadvertently change the citizens’ lives in a way from which Pleasantville may not be able to recover from.
Part of Pleasantville’s magic is introducing into a bland world our world’s complexities, the “unpleasantness” and witnessing changes, emotions, and actions flooding out of people the way they have not thought possible before. Pleasantville is a morality tale, a satirical social commentary about embracing life’s greyness, about discovering and challenging yourselves to new ideas, concepts, and worldviews. It is a film about acknowledging certain things in yourselves that you have been afraid of changing.
While a nostalgic return to the classic black-and-white world is lovely, we exist within a mixed palette of colors. Life is real. Life is complex. And the truths (or the lies!) are never pleasant.
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