* * * 1/2 (out of 4)
It's a very average town. Norman Rockwell country. White picket fences. Nicely trimmed lawns. You can see the town priest, the town mailman, the town doctor and the town mayor bustling down the street tipping their hats to one another as they cheerily meander toward their workplaces. Wouldn't you know, old codgers sit around the coffee shop discussing the new traffic light.
David Mamet disrupts the quaint little burg of Waterford, Vermont when an independent film production comes to town. The project is running out of money, the teamsters don't have enough donuts, the screenwriter has misplaced his typewriter and the lead actor (Alec Baldwin) has a hankering for little girls.
On top of that, the cinematographer wants to smash the church mural to get his brilliant shot and an upwardly mobile townie wants to sue the production for a share of the profits. As you can see, lots of wackiness ensues.
David Mamet's State and Main
There was a time when David Mamet was an exceptional playwright. As he grew in fame, he became more and more Mamet-esque, which is never a good thing because you become convinced that your style and form is the thing, you know? The thing…the inflection of the voice, y'see…is the thing.
A wise man once said (and Mamet will remind us, you see, remind us of what the wise man said) that the play is the thing. And…(pause) and for me…(ellipsis), it's about…about…about integrity. About purity. About taking a…significant pause after…every third word.
Well, his plays have started to become bogged down in those clever linguistic tricks of the Mamet trade. Fortunately for the screengoing audience, his films have existed within mannered genres like the Hitchcock film (The Spanish Prisoner) and the period drama (The Winslow Boy), so the pitter-patter speak doesn't feel distracting. Naturalism doesn't play much of a part in Mamet country.
State and Main is a farce. Since Mamet isn't the most proficient behind-the-camera filmmaker, every time he tries to pull off a sight gag he falls flat on his face. There are at least two moments, one involving broken glass falling on a person's head and another where characters emerge from a doorway when they're not supposed to - both of which depend on good timing with the camera. Mamet flubs them.
