(rated PG-13, 140 mins.)
One successful woman (Angela Bassett) from Boston arrives to town only to find her mother Mary Alice) being pushed out of their coastal home that’s been in the family for years. Another woman (Edie Falco) struggles with selling the family’s motel business to the same developers trying to take over the coastline for commercial profit. And, they’ve got a cute architect (Timothy Hutton) with little power who she takes to. Examining complex relationships, stereotypes, bigotry and politics, writer/director John Sayles (“Lone Star”) tackles long term sunshine state residents against a world of franchises. Ambitious and upbeat the film also stars Mary Steenburger as a sort of town mayor sweetheart with Gordon Clapp (NYPD Blue) as her suicidal, gambling husband.