"State and Main" is the second Philip Seymour Hoffman film to feature a sub-plot about a paedophile, but with Alec Baldwin's thrill-seeking film star as much seduced as seducer this feel-good family movie is far lighter in tone than the unsettling "Happiness".
"State and Main follows the cast and crew of a fairly low-budget Hollywood movie as they try to bring their vision to life in small town America. Hoffman plays a misfit writer, more in tune with the locals than with his colleagues, who is torn between loyalty to his increasingly compromised film-script and his sudden love for a vision of small-town life shown him by the lady who owns the local bookstore. Hoffman brings an aching vulnerability to his performance and manages to convey his character's emotions with a clarity that makes him a compellingly believable romantic lead as well as sweetly sympathetic in his career struggles.
That is not to suggest that there is only one good actor in this film, though. William H Macy, as usual, is a joy to watch, hitting all the right satirical buttons whilst reining in his performance enough to prevent the slide into caricature which satires always threaten. Macy gets a lot of the best lines too, his response to the huge celebratory loaf baked for the crew is the wonderfully Hollywood' rejoinder "yeah, like I'm going to eat carbohydrates" (made me laugh anyway). Also commendable are Sarah Jessica Parker and Alec Baldwin as the respectively self-obsessed and neurotic, and selfish and immoral, pair of leads. Both play in a wonderfully cavalier manner with both their audiences perceptions of their professions and, inevitably, their own public images. Both carry it off.
This is both a lighter-than-air romantic comedy and a mildly amusing and affectionate take on film making and on small town life, and while it isn't going to shock or surprise anyone the calibre of the performances really raises this film into an appealing little masterpiece.
-- Shelley
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