STATE AND MAIN
Starring William H. Macy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Rebecca Pidgeon, and Sarah Jessica Parker
Directed by David Mamet
Starts Friday, January 12
Uptown Screen
Movies about movies are the hardest to make. Often they get so bogged down with in-jokes that the movie fails to go anywhere. Alternately, the movie might try not to exclude its audience and thus lose sight of itself. That is why State and Main is so welcome. It deftly avoids either pitfall and delivers great laughs.
In State and Main, small-town Vermont is invaded by a Hollywood film crew, and it takes less than 24 hours for madness to ensue. The production entitled "The Old Mill" is running into problems because the old mill in town burned down years ago. Now the domineering director (William H. Macy) has to keep things together while the neurotic writer (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) tailors his script for the camera-shy actress (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the star with a penchant for 14-year-old girls (Alec Baldwin).
Writer-director David Mamet (The Winslow Boy, The Spanish Prisoner) has worked his way from wordy character pieces to a wordy character piece with laughs, which turns out to be one of the funniest films in recent memory. While his direction of the actors is solid, the cinematography is nothing of note – but this is to the film’s benefit, because the script is top-notch with many gags and surprises. Mamet succeeds where others fail, letting the wacky sense of humour serve the film for a change. Usually with his scripts, the first act of the film is spent getting used to Mamet-speak, but in State and Main his off-kilter dialogue translates well to the overblown head space of Hollywood power players.
Macy is the comic mirror image of Kirk Douglas’s character from The Bold and The Beautiful, and his experience with Mamet pays off – his quips and one-liners are delivered with comfort and finesse. Mamet deserves credit for making Hoffman the romantic lead. He is not a typical leading man, but he is perfect as the disillusioned writer working on his first film who falls for the small-town bookstore owner, played by Rebecca Pidgeon, who turns in a stunning performance as well. Her previous work has, at times, been wooden, but in this film she is able to infuse her character with a quirky patter that never seems forced.
State and Main succeeds because all of the elements come together just as well as the performances. Mamet’s script is exceptionally smart and works on a variety of levels, and while the film may be guilty of a few in-jokes, they are incorporated as nuance rather than structure. State and Main is almost flawless and ranks as one of the best movies about movies ever made. |
