John Sayles makes what I call fictional demographies; that is, films that take a place at a specific point in time and explore the kind of people you’re likely to encounter there and then, at least in his mind. Even from the first of his own works, Return of the Secaucus 7, to my personal favorite Baby, It’s You and the classics Lone Star and The Secret of Roan Inish, Sayles’ focus is far more on the people and what’s happening to them rather than such niceties as plot and excitement.
2002’s The Sunshine State is much the same. Set on a small, white trash/old black inhabited island near Jacksonville, Florida, that’s finally attracted the attention of developers, we’re mostly concerned with two women of the same age, late 30s, one white, one black and the people in their orbit. Oddly, although both were raised in this small place, neither Marly (Edy Falco) nor Desiree (Angela Bassett) seems aware of the other.
The women recognize the time has come to deal with the results of childhood events and how that’s still affecting their relationships, especially with one particular parent. Unfortunately in neither case does the dialog rise to the situation. Falco and Bassett both do fine acting jobs, as do most of the others in this large, sprawling cast, but Sayles, serving as his own editor, looses everything in a langerous, overlong final cut. For instance, there are several scenes where Gordon Clapp is trying to kill himself but this has almost no relation to the rest of the movie that Sayles makes clear. I expect that if he had cut the movie from about 135 minutes down to, say, 105-110, the end product would have been much more entertaining.
not recommended
BillSaysThis 