i rented this movie with very high hopes .
this movie got praise as one of the best films of 1998 , and unfortunately , was not as good as i hoped , but was still very intriguing and thought provoking .
first of all , the casting for this film is great .
tobey maguire and reese witherspoon are the future of hollywood .
they play their roles as the parker brother and sister perfectly .
with a plot as unbelievable as this film , you need chemistry and honest acting from your cast .
tobey and reese ( bud and mary sue parker ) play their roles perfectly and display their characters with honesty and believability .
william h. macy , an actor i have grown to love over the past year , turns in another great performance as the tv dad who is torn over his wife , a " colored " person and his friends , the " non - colored " ones .
he also displays believability and must display a certain lack of chemistry with his wife .
he does this perfectly and yet again shows why he should be one of the top actors in hollywood .
joan allen is equally great as betty parker ,
the ideal tv mom .
her character is the most ambitious .
she is very na ?
ve , and must display this well to make her character believable
and she does just that .
her lack of chemistry with macy , which the role calls for , and her developed chemistry with jeff daniels is terrific , and if daniels would have been as stellar as the rest of the cast , then this film would even been even better .
as said before , jeff daniels gives a bad performance .
his character displays the change going on throughout the town , yet he does not display it with enough conviction .
his character is very confusing and he is not very believable .
this film could have been elevated to a whole new level had daniels been able to give a better performance .
the movie is very provocative .
it challenges the issues of racism that existed in the past and that still exist today .
i really was not expecting all of the elements they brought up ,
but they pulled them off with such flair that it was mind blowing .
they demonstrate the racism issue without a hitch , but do it in a slow pace .
the only major flaw in the film besides the performance by daniels is length .
some films are not meant to be that long .
pleasantville is one of those films .
this film could have been so much better had they not moved so slowly to it .
first , they are amazed by the implementation of color .
then they want to have it .
then they do not want to .
then the war ensues between the colored and non - colored .
this is all strung out over two hours , which was way too long .
some movies need a lot of time .
saving private ryan was a little bit under three hours long and i thought it could have used more time .
this film is only two hours long , and seems much longer .
length is everything in films .
if you can nail down the perfect timing and pace , you can win half the battle .
pleasantville can move at a good pace at times , but it is not consistent enough .
overall
, pleasantville is a very pleasant and provocative departure from the predictability of most films these days .
i went in expecting a light - hearted film about change .
i left learning an important lesson about racism and the way things change .
luckily
, pleasantville teaches this lesson in such a way to make it appeal to all audiences .
only if it could have done in a shorter amount of time .
Output: P