If you look closely, you will see that Pleasantville is a cross between Back To The Future and The Last Action Hero. The lead characters of David / Bud (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer / Mary Sue (Reese Witherspoon) go back in time to the 1950's once they get sucked into a show called Pleasantville, which is your typical Black & White family program, much like that of Leave It To Beaver and The Andy Griffith Show. On the surface the movie may seem like nothing more than Fantasy film with a couple of MTV Generation Teenagers getting stuck in a fake TV show. But it's much deeper than that and with thought provoking commentary on Racism, Xenophobia, Book burning, etc...

What makes this such a great movie are the character arcs within. You've heard that every character has a beginning, middle and end when they are done right. In this one, the entire town has an arc, some reach their arcs faster than others. By having them turn from Black & White to color, you can see who has awakened something inside of them, which immediately puts them on the outside of society from the rest. By the end of the film, everyone has changed, none more so than David / Bud. His growth is so exponential that he takes what he has learned in Pleasantville back to his own reality to give widsom to his own Mother (Jane Kaczmarek).

I love this movie and I highly recommend this as a Buy. A great cast that also includes William H. Macy, Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, J.T. Walsh, Paul Walker, Marley Shelton and in my opinion, the brilliant and best casting choice for the entire film, Don Knotts as the TV Repairman with the magical Remote Control that kick starts the adventure.

Love Fiona's version of the Beatle's classic and the video itself is still one of my favorites from Paul Thomas Anderson of Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood fame.