# State and Main (2000)

### reviewed by
Steve Rhodes

    STATE AND MAIN
    A film review by Steve Rhodes
    Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes
    RATING (0 TO ****):  *** 1/2

In a present that will be hard to top, STATE AND MAIN, by writer/director David Mamet (THE WINSLOW BOY), is a wonderful gift to moviegoers that comes to theaters this Christmas. Possessing some of the same charm of an early Mamet film, the whimsical THINGS CHANGE from 1988, STATE AND MAIN is a screwball comedy and good-spirited satire about filmmaking in small town America.

With such a great ensemble cast, it's hard to identify the story's star. To the extent that the film has one, it is Academy Award winner William H. Macy (FARGO) as the director of the film, THE OLD MILL, about to begin shooting in the tiny hamlet of Waterford, Vermont. (The film company is broke after being run out of a small town in New Hampshire for unspecified reasons.) Macy with his big blue eyes that are so deep that you could swim in them is at once delicately vulnerable and tough as nails. His motto, as inscribed on his lucky pillow, is "Shoot first. Ask questions afterward." Walt is a master at stroking his stars' massive egos, but he is willing to throw tantrums if necessary to get the movie made.

The male lead in Walt's film, Bob Berringer, played with charismatic wickedness by Alec Baldwin, has a predilection for 14-year-old girls, which has gotten him into trouble before. "Everybody needs a hobby", Bob says smilingly of his illegal activities. Walt, who always tries to please his cast, tells his assistant to get Bob half of a 28-year-old woman. Walt tries to tell everyone what they want to hear. "That's not a lie," he retorts when being caught in one. "That's a gift for fantasy."

When Bob sets his eyes on a local girl named Carla (Julia Stiles), Carla hints at being under-aged, knowing his preferences. Her exact age remains a bit of a mystery. The story, in fact, takes great pleasure in throwing all manner of little mini-dramas and mysteries at us, leaving us to guess which will be dead ends and which will turn out to be significant.

Walt and his neophyte screenwriter, Joseph 'Joe' Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman), have problems aplenty, not the least of which is that; after choosing Waterford for its old mill, they find out that the mill burned down during a series of mysterious fires in 1960. (Ah, those mysteries.) Another problem is that the female lead, Claire (Sarah Jessica Parker from the "Sex in the City" television series), has found religion and is no longer willing to appear topless as clearly specified in her $3M contract. Actually, she is willing for an extra $800,000 to bare her breasts. This is all terribly ironic since her breasts have been on the screen so often that viewers "can draw them from memory" claims Walt and others.

Joe falls in love with Annie (Rebecca Pidgeon), the owner of the local bookstore. Annie is fond of quoting lines that he has forgotten from Joe's own plays -- "If you weren't down, how would you know when you were up" -- in order to cheer him up and to inspire him.

Hearing of the trouble on the set, the film's take-no-prisoners producer, Marty (David Paymer), shows up to straighten everyone out. Putting his arms around Walt, Marty is heard to say off-screen, "Did you see the grosses for Gandhi 2?" Marty brings Walt a very profitable product placement idea from a dot.com company. Of course, getting a computer into a movie set in 1895 might prove difficult for someone less resourceful than Marty.

All of the crew are heavy cell phone users, but this is done cutely and not irritatingly as it was in HANGING UP. After the latter film, I thought that I never wanted to see a cell phone in a movie ever again.

I've just barely scratched the surface of this story. In a tour de force effort on Mamet's part, he manages to craft an enormous number of fully developed characters, all of whom win our hearts, even if most do have their faults. His talent is never better seen than in the clever way in which he wraps up all of the story's loose ends. STATE AND MAIN is the kind of big-hearted movie that's worth seeing again and again.

STATE AND MAIN runs a brisk 1:30. It is rated R for language and brief sexual images but is considerably milder than most recent PG-13 movies. Although it is the parents' judgment, I would see no problem taking kids as young as 11. In fact, I'd be happy to let my son, who is 11, see it.

Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com

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