(rated R, 102 mins.)
It’s a David Mamet film so it works as a witty satirical comedy, a switch from his usual tension-dramas. Set in a story about a small New England town with a strong ensemble cast including Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Patti LuPone, William H. Macy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Stiles and Phillip Seymour Hoffman who is Oscar nom worthy. It’s Waterford, Vermont where a crew is shooting a would-be blockbuster directed by Macy (with the same “Fargo” personality) and setting up shop after being thrown out of another New England location. It’s the total cliché. A group of cell-phone-wielding movie moguls invade a quaint New England town. Stiles is the teen who wants to bed Baldwin, Durning as the star-struck mayor and Rebecca Pidgeon (real life Mrs. Mamet) portrays a bookstore owner trying to organize an amateur theatre group. Hoffman steals the show as the screenwriter Joe White who witnesses movie star Baldwin’s indiscretions with the local teen (Stiles). His values are put to the test when he is pressured by the director (in total threatening “Fargo” style) to put aside his convictions for the sake of the film and his writing career. Elements of the movie can be pulled from every movie out there, but it’s Mamet’s ability to nail down Hollywood the way he did politically in “Wag The Dog”, that makes it all come together as a movie within a movie, so apropos of real life movie sets.
