Cinema Verite

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 1, 2001 | by Rex Roberts

A screwball comedy pits the difficulty of truth-telling against the expediency of lying.

Prediction for 2001: Truth, justice and the American way will be explored ad nauseam in new movies as Hollywood (1) works feverishly to justify its support of Clintonian perfidy, (2) taps into the country's longing for at least a facade of probity and (3) rediscovers that old-fashioned moral dilemmas still make the best stories.

Certainly, truth and its ambiguities were on the mind of David Mamet as he wrote and directed State and Main (opens Dec. 22). Whatever inspired him to tackle this timely topic, Mamet wisely opted for serious frivolity over earnest preachment. State and Main, a screwball comedy that borrows blithely from Preston Sturges, is thoughtful entertainment that sends up sophisticates and small-towners alike.

In keeping with the genre, the film's plot is improbable but beguiling. A movie company in search of a readymade set breezes into picturesque Waterford, Vt. Acerbic director Walt Price (William H. Macy) needs a quaint town with an old mill for his movie rifled ... The Old Mill. He also must cajole and caress his spoiled cast -- leading man Bob Barrenger (Alec Baldwin) and leading lady Claire Wellesley (Sarah Jessica Parker) -- a task complicated by Barrenger's unfortunate predilection for young girls and Wellesley's sudden prudishness -- she refuses to perform her obligatory nude scene.

The townspeople, dazzled by celebrity, launch their own plots: Affable mayor George Bailey (Charles Durning) and his wife (Patti LuPone) frantically redecorate their house in preparation for a lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous dinner party; ambitious local politico Doug MacKenzie (Clark Gregg) maneuvers to milk the producers for more money; precocious teenager Carla Taylor (Julia Stiles) schemes to seduce Barrenger.

Meanwhile, the charming proprietor of Waterford's bookstore, Ann Black (Rebecca Pidgeon), falls for the film's shy screenwriter, Joe White (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who spends his time rewriting his script to accommodate the director, the actors, the producers -- and the fact that the town's old mill, unbeknown to the location scout, burned down long ago.

Mamet not only manages to weave these strands together, he moves the film along briskly -- writing in a bit of bedroom farce, complete with slamming doors, just for the fun of it. In fact, State and Main is well into its 102 minutes before it reaches its real moment of crisis, when Barrenger smashes up his car while cavorting with Carla. Machiavellian producer Marty Rossen (David Paymer) instinctively concocts a cover story -- "She wasn't in the car" -- which will work except ... Joe White saw the accident, the only witness, and his new love Ann Black wants him to tell the truth. His future in the movie business depends on his choice -- Ann and honesty, or Marty and mendacity.

Behind the bits and gags, State and Main raises some weighty issues, foremost of which is: "You shall not bear false witness" the Ninth Commandment that serves as the motto of the defunct Waterford Sentinel (Ann dreams of reviving the paper). But Mamet is careful to balance this godly injunction with a more earthbound observation--that the motives of those wishing to expose falsehood are often as caustic as the falsehoods themselves.

State and Main has a genuine good-heartedness about it that, like Mamet's earlier Things Change, argues that people deserve a second chance (as happens with Joe). That's a wonderful sentiment, though one mostly embraced in darkened theaters. Still, Mamet finds hope in the projected light that shines upon our higher aspirations.