Pleasantville.
Meh. After all the raving, I was a bit disappointed.
There was clearly a "libertine" message, which I actually appreciate, and an overt racism connotation, which seemed oddly out of place, but it was hard to suspend disbelief that people would be that stupid (as opposed to ignorant.) To a point, they had to dehumanize the characters into what they actually were, cardboard TV constructions, to make it "realistic" (in context of magic, of course.) They had to humanize the characters, but draw the line somewhere in how human they were (like the fry cook, who knew there were needs to act differently, but rather than acting, fretted.)
There were also huge problems with the idea of the story that they had to work around, anyway. For example, the "colored" woman puts on make up which is still grayscale (and what about her clothes?), to cover her color, yet when other women turn "colored," they have colored makeup, clothes, etc. The characters also knew of colors, and even knew what they were, to the point they dwelled on whether they were "real" colors.
As for more oddities about what they cardboard characters knew and didn't, the "parents" didn't know about sex. Some knew about rain, but other didn't. The whole library and books thing was similarly disjointed, and I suspect the reason for bringing it into the story was to have book burnings toward the end. Yes, it's just a movie, but "little" things like that were distracting--as I said, it was an obvious challenge for a screen play.
Its best moments were the typical overreactions of the characters to change, some when it impacted them, and others when they just didn't like seeing it. The message of tolerating and even learning to enjoy change is important, because change is a guaranteed experience in real life. There were also interesting parallels between the characters' experiences and various myths and legends, such as the obvious reference to the main character eating an apple that the girl offered him, in the lush wooded area, and the "TV repairman" referring to it as though it were a sin.
For what it's worth, it seems Ian claimed all the "action" was happening in the town square. All the "action" happened at Lovers' Lane.
I'd give it a B- overall, and most of that was for the attempt at a libertine message (resisting the absurd notion that society will crumble if some people enjoy themselves in ways others would not.) The rest of the credit goes for the obvious technical and logical problems of making it into a screenplay. Otherwise, I'd give it a D+ (thus, I suspect people who don't respect the message or the craft would give it a similar grade.)
Addendum
Added the grading points.
The Free Talk Live BBS
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Topic: Last movie you've watched (Read 470559 times)