Pleasantville

Before 'Series Seven', I happened to switch on 'Pleasantville', and as usual I left it on until the end, a sure sign that it's a favourite flick. Despite a courtroom climax that doesn't support the weight of the movie that has preceded it, it is a wonderful, if optimistic, movie. With its masterful use of 'black and white' (with no black character in it), it operates on so many levels, even getting away with an obvious forbidden fruit scene. It is just short of a masterpiece, but an obvious labour of love for writer-director Gary Ross, and something I would be proud to have written. And in case you doubt me, let us recall J. T. Walsh's immortal words: ' We're safe now, thank God we're in a bowling alley, but if George doesn't get his dinner it could be any one of us next....'