Sunshine State Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)June 21st, 2002
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There isn't a bigger John Sayles fan than this guy right here. I love the diversity of subjects reflected in his resume almost as much as I love the individual films themselves. Sure, I scratched my head over the disappointing and disjointed Limbo, chalking it up in the same "Let's Cut Him Some Slack Because He's Never Made a Bad Film" category as such pictures as Bringing Out the Dead and Mission: Impossible 2 (the latter was promptly bumped upon the release of Windtalkers).
Now we get Sunshine State, which is a dull, plodding, overly long drama that goes nowhere (unless around in circles counts as somewhere) and manages to make Limbo look like Raging Bull and Hard Boiled put together. In a way, I guess it all kind of makes sense. If somebody was really trying to assemble a very diverse filmography, there would have to be at least a few god-awful movies in there, right? Sayles has gotten the quality end of things out of the way, freeing him up to concentrate on the stinkers. Hey, maybe he can sign up for the Battlefield Earth sequel!
The story is incredibly simple, though Sayles tries to make it much more complex than it really is. Everything is set in Plantation Island, Florida, a somewhat rundown town full of locally owned businesses that have been in operation for several generations. Investors have arrived in Plantation Island intending to buy gobs and gobs of land to turn into a ritzy golf resort for people with loud voices, louder pants and fat wallets. There are a ton of characters (nearly as many as Gosford Park), and their stories intertwine as if they were being conducted by Robert Altman himself. There are two main threads, though...
Marly Temple (Edie Falco, The Sopranos) has inherited the family's motel/restaurant business and dutifully runs it while hating it more than anything she's ever known. Her dad (Ralph Waite) retired because of failing eyesight, while Mom (Jane Alexander) spends all of her time down at the community theatre where she teaches acting. As if that weren't exciting enough (and, believe me, it's not), Marly finds herself pursued by three suitors - ex-husband Steve (Richard Edson), a golf pro wannabe (Marc Blucas) and a landscape architect (Timothy Hutton) working for the company that wants to buy Marly's land out from under her.
Meanwhile, over on Lincoln Beach (it's the black enclave of Plantation Island and has been for decades), Desiree Perry (Angela Bassett, The Score) has returned home after leaving the town in disgrace as a pregnant teenager. Now a burgeoning Boston-based infomercial host with a trophy husband (James McDaniel), Desiree wants to reconnect with her estranged mother (Mary Alice), who has taken in a wayward nephew (Alex Lewis) accused of torching a float that was to be used in the second annual Buccaneer Day parade (it's the "event" that ties the stories together). Enter "Florida Flash" Phillips (Tom Wright), the football star who knocked Desiree up 25 years ago, and things begin to get a little tense.
I don't have a problem with unresolved narrative threads, but you've got to draw the line somewhere. I would have appreciated something (anything!) that would have made me feel like I didn't just waste two and a half hours watching a film that may have been better served as a documentary. Yeah, we get it. Homogenization is a really bad thing. Starbucks = bad. Golf courses = bad. Not knowing your own history = bad. Is this stuff news to anyone?
One the plus side, State is full of some strong performances, most notably by the two female leads. The characters, some of whom are stuck in the past, while others are eager to leap into the future, are nicely fleshed out (more so than those in Altman's latest). Sayles does well to (mostly) not tell his story from only one point of view, even though his morale is completely one-sided. They're all welcome touches, but not enough to make State a worthwhile viewing experience.
2:20 - PG-13 for brief strong language, a sexual reference and thematic elements
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