Pleasantville is a beautifully imagined movie about the struggle between self-realization and conformity. The story moves lightheartedly between snippets of fifties reality and the idealized TV shows that caught the currents of the time while ignoring its problems. He has soaked up the details by watching reruns while lounging in adolescent lethargy and contemplating a world far more to his liking than the one he has. Armed with historical perspective, Jennifer and David slip seamlessly into the bodies of their fifties counterparts, Bud and Mary Sue, only to be confounded by the emotional repression that surrounds them.
Mom is the idealized essence of the fifties mother.
Milk comes in glass bottles. Firemen save cats from trees. There are no fires in Pleasantville. As she plants the seeds of pleasure, the black and white characters turn slowly to color. After backseat sex, the basketball player sees a red rose.