recently i read 4 reviews of pleasantville - one from entertainment weekly , one from a newsgroup , and two from different online resources .
each review compared this film to the truman show .
why ?
the only reason people compared pleasantville to truman is due to the fact that their lives are on television .
other than that , the two movies are completely different from each other .
reviewers seem to love to pick one movie ( i .
e .
the truman show ) , obsess over it , and make it a guideline for other movies .
when pleasantville and edtv opened , all critics seemed to treat the two films like they were subjects of king truman .
the same goes for the thin red line , as well .
when it opened in decemeber , probably 98 % of reviews compared it to stephen spielberg 's saving private ryan , giving thin line no chance whatsoever .
critics loved private ryan so much , that they automatically decided no movie is good enough to reach its standards .
this is why i think pleasantville was underrated . if the truman show had never been made , pleasantville probably would have received better reviews , done better at the box office , and would be remembered after it 's long been on the video store shelves .
sure , it was n't perfect , and it was n't very believeable , but neither was the wizard of oz or star wars , and there stands two of the most prominent movies in history .
with the exception of don knotts as the annoying " tv repairman " the film is cast perfectly : the ice storm 's tobey maguire is david in real life ; he watches the old 50 's sitcom " pleasantville " to escape from his feuding parents .
his twin sister , jen ( reese witherspoon ) is a popular slut who ( steriotypically ) smokes and wears revealing clothes .
but what makes her character believeable is the dialogue - those excessive 90 's terms such as " like " , " whatever " , and " cool " make her sound like the total dimwit she 's supposed to be .
the twins , with a little help from a tv repairman ( casting don knotts in this role was obviously a cameo - esque cast rather than a true acting one ) , are sucked into pleasantville by a magical new remote .
their new parents , played by william h .
macy and joan allen , are perfect in every way .
their new names are bud and mary sue , and right away they start to corrupt the town of pleasantville .
after the siblings fit comfortably in their new roles , the movie begins to take form .
it 's just like watching a sitcom in itself ; you do n't want it to end .
" mary sue " has sex with her date , the school basketball champion ; when he tells all his friends about it , they stop preforming perfectly at basketball , and things start to take color .
soon we learn that these people do n't know how to express true emotions , and when they learn to do so , they eventually turn into color .
this eventually sparks a racial war between the " coloreds " and the " black & whites .
"
entertainment weekly reviewer lisa schwarzbaum claims the movie has , " none of the depth , poignance , and brilliance of the truman show . . .
"
yes , the truman show was maybe a little more intelligent .
but the racial setting - intensified by the forcing of the coloreds to sit in the upper box of the courtroom - certainly classifies as deep , considering it 's what i least expected .
gary ross did not try to create an intelligent , award masterpiece - he just tries to convey moral messages within his work .
take for example big and dave , his past films .
big - be careful what you wish for .
dave - good or bad lying is still lying .
did these movies win big awards ?
no ,
but they won the heart of millions .
pleasantville could have done that too , if it was n't for snotty reviewers who set precedents with preceeding films .
pleasantville
: a-
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" i almost lost my nose . . .
and i like it .
i like breathing through it .
"
-jack nicholson , chinatown
Output: P