Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

MEDICINE IN THE MOVIES

2001; Wolters Kluwer; Volume: 23; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/01.cot.0000315774.21204.95

1548-4688

Eli Glatstein,

Health and Conflict Studies

‘STATE AND MAIN’ Starring Alec Baldwin, Charles Durning, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Patti LuPone, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Paymer, and Rebecca Pidgeon. Written and directed by David Mamet. 106 minutes (Rated R). David Mamet represents a unique figure in American writing. He has written a wide range of plays and, more recently, movies. He has become a director of his own movies. He has a remarkable flair for dialogue, some of it quite foul, but always fascinating, as he appears to have a real ear for what the American man-on-the-street says and how he says it. In the theater, he is probably best known for Glengarry Glen Ross and American Buffalo. His movies have been less than sensational hits, although he did cowrite (but not direct) Wag the Dog. The timing of that movie with respect to some of the political events that took place after the film had been written is a remarkable instance of life imitating art. In his latest, State and Main, Mamet has written a biting satire on Hollywood and its influence in small-town America. A movie crew that was kicked out of a New Hampshire town and shifted to Waterford, Vermont, has a requirement for an old mill, since the script they are shooting is titled The Old Mill. Unfortunately as it turns out, the old Waterford mill burned down years previously, and the writer, Joseph Turner White (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) has to figure out how to shoot a movie about an old mill without having an old mill. He receives that direction from the movie's obsessively driven director, Walt Price, wonderfully played by the always watchable William H. Macy. The single-minded Price has on his mind only the completion of the film on time and within budget. He has to contend with a wide variety of problems including a leading man who has a thing for underage girls and a leading lady, who, having signed a $3 million contract, decides that she is not in the mood to bare her breasts as the script requires.FigureMuch of the satire is highly predictable but the dialogue crackles with excellent one-liners. Example: Accused by Hoffman of lying, Macy responds, “It's not a lie; it's a gift for fiction.” The acting is first class throughout, as Hoffman, Macy, and Rebecca Pidgeon (Mamet's real-life wife) all give top performances. Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker play the two major actors of the film within the film. The best and meatiest lines belong to David Paymer as the aggressive Jewish producer trying to get things done with a vitriolic tongue brimming with venom. Michael Higgins plays a wonderfully crusty New England general practitioner who's seen it all. A running joke in the last half of the movie is Price's challenge to stick a computer product placement ad into the ersatz film, even though the movie is supposed to be taking place in the 19th century!