I wish I could give this flick a 10. It has much of what I want from a movie; colorful writing, great scenario work, and supercharged acting moxie.But... what does it lack? Hm. It's one of those things where the writing smells of the craft, and it's up to the direction/acting to cover that up. And it valiantly tries and does make some inroads. But, in the end, you can still smell the writing craftiness.Mamet is known for his knotty, gnarly complexity. Every now and again he gets the balance (of detail and myth) just right e.g., Glengarry. Here, it's a little detail top-heavy. But, yes, the myth is still there in all it's shining glory.It's still a fun flick to watch for all the positive attributes cited above, and highly recommended. It's also got a truckload of insider film patois and self-important preening.Loved the glancing ref to Mamet's old buddy, Jonathan Katz: "...and, P.S., pal: I put the word out of the street and Betty Boop can look for work in Squigglevision!" Not to mention Katz's cameo!Anyway... Yeah, I can recommend it. Not as taut as Glengarry, certainly not as gratuitously/ungratifiably complex as "The Spanish Prisoner". It's a rollicking cavalcade.

I have, for seven years, been waiting to see this film. I always tell the story about the time I went with some friends to the cinema and convinced everyone to watch this film and once inside the theater everyone wanted to go because they didn't like what they were watching but I wanted to stay because I liked it very much. And because I think there's a time for movies and that they arrive when they arrive, I have just found David Mamet's "State and Main" and, luckily, I've liked it very much. Of course, it's a special movie, but not in the sense that it's not for everyone. It's an easy-going movie, with a clear and simple plot line, nice sceneries and a cinematography that doesn't take any risks; but I could merely recommend, with enthusiasm, that everyone who watches assume a commitment. What do I mean by this? Well, that if you pay more attention than usual you should really enjoy it. The thing is that "State and Main" is a movie about a movie, and it's written by David Mamet, fact that naturally makes it not 'any' movie about a movie. I'll take a risk and say that this is based on one of Mamet's plays (I don't know that for a fact), because it looks very theatrical, but with the exceptional cast (by genius Avy Kaufman) and Theodore Shapiro's shifting score, we quickly forget about it. We don't forget, however, what may originally have come from a play; and that's Mamet's use of language. From scene one, where a doctor encounters a patient on the street and Walt (William H. Macy) argues with his team about the place they've ended up in, the writer/director establishes a style in his screenplay that we feel throughout the whole ride and contains certain characteristics: sharp, witty, direct, humorous and, at surprising times, reflexive and profound. Walt is a director who comes to shoot a film to Waterford, Vermont; the place they've ended up in: the middle of nowhere. The fact that Waterford is a little town where everyone has a big smile on their faces and don't seem to have problems (Julia Stiles' perfect working teenager; Rebecca Pidgeon's kind and loving Annie; Charles Durning's mayor), helps to establish a contrast with the neurotic director and his Hollywood crew: the manipulative and unstoppable producer Marty (a wonderful David Paymer); the popular star with a 'thing' for minors Bob (the role Alec Baldwin knows by heart); the pretty and stupid popular actress (Sarah Jessica Parker, in the role that suits her quite well); and the character with which you should implement my recommendation of paying attention: the creative, insecure writer of the film, Joe, played by the Great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Stereotypes? Why not some of them? But Manet is so gifted that, instead of assuming a character is stereotyped, he gives them lines for us to recognize, through their personality, the stereotype they represent. This sound simple, but it's not. It's the same I try to say about "State and Main": it looks simple, and it can be; but it doesn't have to be if you want it to. If you want, you can put yourselves in Joe the writer's position and try to figure out the truth, whatever it may be. If you want, you can enter as an outsider to the world of making a film and what it has to offer; to the political aspirations and perspectives of a little town; to the tradition and the stories and the sense of home of a little town. Mamet knows all of these things, and here sometimes he takes a stand; he sometimes mocks, other times he praises, most of the time he makes no sense at all, but all the time he's showing these things to us, in any form you may want to take them. And what's what cinema essentially does?

It's not hilarious but it's consistent in its good-natured cynicism, from which most of its amusement quotient is derived. Mamet takes us to a small town in Vermont where Bill Macy is trying to set up locations for a film he is directing, (Some problems there with the old watermill, the centerpiece of the story, which doesn't exist anymore.)Alec Baldwin is a little careless about his attraction to young girls and this adds to the difficulties when he's put upon by the authorities. He has the best line though -- the last in the film -- when he shuffles off to the set and mutters, "It beats working." Philip Seymour Hoffman has a strange face, indeed a strange presence, and brings a good deal of talent to the role of a screenwriter with principle, probably the closest thing to a protagonist the movie offers us. He quits his job at one point before having an epiphany and returning to work. And he has a romance with the attractive, perceptive, flatly matter-of-fact Rebecca Pigeon, who projects an extraordinary intelligence and sexiness despite her ski boots and overgrown running shoes, which any normal viewer would love to pluck off and turn into soup. As their romance is nudged forward by events, she asks Hoffman, "How do you feel about children?" He stares back open mouthed, his mind whirling, before he replies, "I never could see the point." I just claimed his mind was whirling but he gives no evidence of it in his behavior. He simply stands there agog and hesitates for some seconds before speaking. But a viewer KNOWS his brain is clicking, even though it's moving in an unanticipated direction. That's acting talent, and pretty good writing too. Some clever lines are sprinkled over the script. Macy examines the wardrobe sketches and remarks, "Who designed these costumes? It looks like Edith Head puked and the puke designed the costumes." Well, I'm not sure that's "clever" but it's funny.It will probably leave you smiling, so go ahead and watch it if you can.

State and Main never fails to reward repeated viewings no matter how many times I watch it, and I've watched it at least a dozen times. I could watch it a dozen more times. It's not typical Mamet, although I wish it was. The only other Mamet comedies that come to mind are "We're No Angels" and "Wag The Dog" and maybe "About Last Night." He seems to greatly prefer darker characters and darker themes ("Glengarry Glen Ross," "American Buffalo," "The Verdict," "Oleanna," "Edmond," etc. etc.) and, most notably, crackling, labyrinthine mysteries ("The Spanish Prisoner," "Heist," "House of Games," "Homicide," "Spartan").If you listen to the delightful cast commentary on the DVD, you will learn that Mamet is trying his hand at madcap comedy in the style of Preston Sturges ("Unfaithfully Yours (1948)"). There is never a dull moment. The movie is laced with running gags and brimming with razor-sharp wit. Mamet frequently delights us with complex, busy tracking shots choreographed to a fare-thee-well, moving from character to character and room to room with supporting characters moving in and out. Mamet is in top form as director and writer, which given his prodigious gifts-he won the Pulitzer Prize for "Glengarry Glen Ross"-means he is working at a level even Woody Allen at the height of his powers would be hard pressed to match.Read the lengthy quotes section if you need proof of this. Every exchange tickles the funnybone. Among the running gags are references to the World Court ("Of course he's on the coast, where's he gonna be, The Hague?"), the "spate of suspicious fires" that became the inspiration for the Waterford Huskies (huh?), and the burning question, "Does it have to be an Old Mill?" The pothole in the center of town is another subtle but brilliant comic leitmotiv. Every time you turn around, somebody's running through the darn thing. Then one night Alec Baldwin hits the pothole-and the consequences send State and Main to a whole new level of hysteria.Some of the best gags are pure through-the-looking-glass nonsense. Joe White tells director Walt Price, "I can only write on manual," to which the director replies, "I know the feeling." Marty Rossen asks Walt, "How are you getting on with these fine people?" and Walt answers cheerfully, "Like dykes and dogs." Walt tells Claire Wellesey a rambling yarn about Eleanor Duse, trying to inspire Claire to stay with the movie, but when he gets to the moral of the story… "And did she do the seven shows?" Claire asks. "No, Claire," Walt replies, "but I think you should do this movie." The cast of State and Main is a dream cast, and everyone delivers winning, spot-on performances. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a standout as the first-time screenwriter sheepishly trying to hang on to his moral compass, and William H. Macy is absolutely superb as the ringmaster who has an attitude to match every situation. But the centerpiece is Rebecca Pidgeon, whose placid warmth and wise charm provide the emotional eye-of-the-storm, the moral center, and the Greek chorus for the movie, anchoring the whirlwind of personal agendas and flawed characters swirling around her. (I will say that I find Mamet's casting of non-actors as bit players more than a bit distracting. He likes to cast his poker buddies, the commentary informs us.) That Pidgeon's Annie dumps her local politician boyfriend and ends up winning the heart of the idealistic Hollywood screenwriter should confound any attempt to simplistically reduce the film to "cynical Hollywood venality invades innocent small-town America". The movie is much more ambiguous and complex than that. Despite giving in to their worst impulses and coming within a hair's breadth of disaster for the second time, the film crew finally does get to make their movie. In the end, the moral of the story is, "The only second chance in life is the chance to make the same mistake twice."