On October 23, 1998 Janet R. Maslin, an American journalist, best known for being a film and literary critic for the New York Times, wrote a review of the film Pleasantville. This film offers a juxtaposition between two worlds: the life the characters desire and the life they actually have. David was an unhappy teenager living with a promiscuous sister and a divorced mother in a very modern, almost disorganized family. He therefore viewed his life as one without structure and stability. David used the sitcom Pleasantville as a way to escape his reality and enter into a word of stability. Pleasantville described to him a life of perfection with an idealized image of a pleasant life. Indeed, almost immediately at the beginning of the film we see the juxtaposition between the current life and the desired life. As Ms. Maslin suggests, Gary Ross's vision of an ingenious "Pleasantville" fantasy is well represented in this film. One of the very first things the film opens with is David's mother on the phone discussing his parents' visitation rights. The camera then cuts to David who is obviously living vicariously through the life of Bud, the sitcom son, and feels a sense of nostalgia for a place he has never been. David imagines himself at Bud's house with hot meals waiting for him as he wakes up in the morning and walks home from school. Even though David and Jennifer attend school in their real lives, it seems David still longs for the perfect place of safety and, once again, lives vicariously through someone else. David watches and daydreams about the conversation he wants to have with his crush. You see him watching a cute, popular guy talking and asking his crush out on a date. David places himself in the interaction between... the center of the card... and Pleasantville. However, it symbolizes the beginning of an awakening for Skip and the entire town. Shortly after Skip notices the rose, all the other teenagers start having sex, and they also notice the different colors of the world, and shortly thereafter there is a riot throughout Pleasantville. After the introduction of sex, they experienced rain for the first time and discovered other pleasures such as painting and true passion. David's father finally saw his mother beyond the roles she played as wife and mother, and saw her as someone who had an inexplicable love for her teachings and something for David too. They helped David discover his courage and taught him that perfection does not exist and that the ideal image of the "American dream" does not exist. Additionally, they helped Jennifer discover education and its value beyond being hypersexual.