Is it The Truman Show? Back to the Future? Blast from the Past? No, something perhaps less rib-tickling but ultimately with more to say about our relationship with the utopias of TV yesteryear, particularly those in the heightened form of '50s Americana.
Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon are perfectly cast for their mix of knowingness and goofiness as teenagers sucked into the anodyne black-and-white world of his favourite re-run show, where they then proceed to turn society upside down in a thrice. The time-travel vehicle accommodates comment on a broad variety of issues here, from racism, the counterculture and McCarthyism to the whole notion of what constitutes a utopia. The I Love Lucy world may be a tad contrived as a target, far more of a sitter than the 50s really were, but then the particularities of the device used enable Ross to keep a suitable distance from accusations of having set out to make a simple historical critique. If mawk eventually overwhelms the message, as is inevitable, it at least comes late and mercifully undercut.
7/10
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