Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Pleasantville

Go To

  • Angst? What Angst?: Betty and Margaret don't seem particularly shocked to learn that "Bud" and "Mary Sue" are from another universe and that "Bud" is leaving to go back to his own reality.
  • Award Snub: Joan Allen won several critics awards for Supporting Actress yet didn't receive an Oscar nomination.
  • Awesome Music:
    • The Dave Brubeck Quartet's "Take Five", then Miles Davis' "So What" playing as David explains that there is a world outside of Pleasantville.
    • Etta James' "At Last".
    • Buddy Holly's music is used in the movie to good effect.
    • Fiona Apple's cover of "Across The Universe" was particularly good ending music.
    • Randy Newman's breathtaking score. It captures the feeling of world-changing wonder that the introduction of color in Pleasantville brings perfectly.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Skip Martin, due to him being played by Paul Walker.
  • Genius Bonus: The first two books that David fills in by explaining the plots of are Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, the two most banned books in American history. Likewise, the book that Jennifer reads after David starts his "stunningly dorky fad" is Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence, an infamously banned book that was the subject of a notorious lawsuit in Britain.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • One True Threesome: Many fans consider this an answer to the question posed in the final scene between Betty, Bill and George.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • Paul Walker, who later became well known as one of the stars of The Fast and the Furious franchise, plays Jennifer/Mary Sue's boyfriend Skip Martin.
    • A handful of actors from Buffy the Vampire Slayer play small roles, like Jonathan (Danny Strong) as one of the teens asking about books in the diner, Pat (Joyce's friend in one episode) who plays one of Betty's friends playing cards, Ford (Buffy's friend from her old school) who plays one of the friends of Jennifer's crush at the start at the movie, and Marc Blucas as one of the teens terrified by the first rain ever to hit Pleasantville out at Lover's Lane.
    • Jenny Lewis is one of Jennifer's friends at the start of the film.
    • Jennifer's and David's mom is Lois from Malcolm in the Middle.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: Because it sets the present day so thoroughly in the late 90s, in order to contrast with the 50s setting of Pleasantville, the movie's setting is iconically and unrepentantly 90s.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The effect used to pull off film's gradual shift from black-and-white to color, especially the falling-flower-petal sequence, were groundbreaking. In fact, this film was, at one point, the most effects-heavy movie ever made.
  • The Woobie:
    • George after Betty leaves him.
    • Bill. Especially when the greyscale mob destroys his diner and art, leaving him crestfallen.

Top