State and Main
Directed & written by David Mamet.
Starring William H. Macy, Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, Alec Baldwin, David Paymer
& Sarah Jessica Parker.
Having been thrown off their shoot in New Hampshire, a film crew, desperate for a location, arrive in the one-horse New England town of Waterford. Problems continually plague the production. There are the tantrums and ‘hobbies’ of the stars, Bob Barrenger (a dissipated-looking Baldwin) and Claire Wellesley (Parker); the obsessive script-writer Joe (Hoffman) who has lost his typewriter and is blocked; and, not least, the town’s historic mill turns out to have burned down 1960, something of a disadvantage when shooting a film called ‘The Old Mill’. Throughout it all director Walt Price (Macy) flatters, bullies and oozes false sincerity with the single-minded aim of getting the film in the can. The show must go on. There’s no funding left.
The humour derives from the quick dialogue, the snowballing of trivial problems into potential disasters, and the collision of the characters’ petty eccentricities. The sequence where Walt persuades a near-hysterical Claire to do a nude shot is an absolute treat. The general flavour is reminiscent of Wag the Dog (which Mamet co-wrote). There’s a certain amount of cushy predictability and the plot twists are almost smug but this is disarmed with irony that never quite gets out of control. There are a few too many characters but many don’t get much description. Some of the casting and characterisation isn’t quite right: teenager Carla (Julia Stiles) seems too calculating to be smitten with Barrenger, and Ann Black (Pidgeon) is a little too sharp and perky to be a product of a town of simple old-world values and laconic wit. A few too many allusions go unexplained and I didn’t grasp the significance of the traffic lights at the intersection of State and Main streets (hence the title). But I did enjoy this film. It’s entertaining and highly amusing.
Guy
Ah, for once I get to write a good review! State & Main is excellent. Really funny, and not in the usual Hollywood slapstick sense.
The story is about a team of film-makers headed by director William H. Macy, who travel to Waterford, a small town in country US. They encounter several difficulties with the filming, including "how do I make a movie called The Old Mill without an old mill?" and their star actors various eccentricities. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the writer, forced to rethink his script whenever a problem occurs — the production is, after all, out of money.
The characters in the town are country simpletons, who aren’t condescended, but treated by this movie with respect, in the same way that Fargo achieved the perfect balance. The humour in the movie also resembles Fargo; it is subtle, and the punchlines are allowed plenty of time to hang in the air, giving them all the more effect.
I must commend all of the performances in this movie; Alec Baldwin perfectly suits the "big star" role, as does Sarah Jessica Parker. They both have good timing. P. S. Hoffman is excellent as always, and W. H. Macy rehashes his Fargo character to great effect.
This movie is like a Coen brothers movie, without the Coen brothers (and the music that they would put to it). In fact, it includes Charles Durning, a Coen regular, as the Mayor. But it is also very quaint, and the jokes are there in spades. I just love the way the movie treats its audience with respect, something that is rare these days.
Sorry, I’ve got nothing bad to say for this — it is the best movie to come out for ages.
Jonathan Rossiter
