Starring: Colin Firth, Orlando Bloom, Andrew McCarthy, Ellen Burstyn and Patricia Clarkson
Distributor: Hoyts
Runtime: 94 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2011
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Sinclair Lewis once wrote an important American novel about an ordinary American town – what better than to call it Main Street? This is not a version of Lewis’ novel, but it is in his spirit.
For 2011, this seems an extraordinarily ‘old-fashioned film’, ‘classical film story-telling’ if one prefers (with not a swear word or sex scene to be seen or heard). Yet, it is an interesting film all the way through. It has old issues and contemporary issues to explore. It has fine performances which hold the attention. It is well written and worth listening to. The writer is playwright, Horton Foote, to whom the film is dedicated. For fifty years and more, he has written fine films about the American south, adapting Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, writing 1918, On Valentine’s Day and Tender Mercies amongst many others.
Perhaps younger audiences and those who prefer life and movies at a faster pace may not be caught up by Main Street but an appreciative audience which values the American movie tradition with find it a worthy successor.
Behind the opening credits is news footage of earlier decades and prosperity in Durham, North Carolina. Much of it came from tobacco growing. Then we see the present. While there are tall buildings and offices, the centre of Durham is becoming run down. Young people want to move on. The town council laments that few people turn up for parades. The spirit of the American town is seen to be dying – or on the move away.
Then we enter into the lives of some of the townspeople. Orlando Bloom plays Harris, a young policeman who is studying law at night, in love with school sweetheart, Mary (Amber Tamblyn), staying at home for his mother (Margo Martindale). Meanwhile, Mary has a job in a law firm in Raleigh and goes out on a date with her boss (Andrew McCarthy) but when she is warned that he is married with children, she is upset and is fired, determined to leave for Atlanta at once.
In an old 1920s mansion, Georgiana Carr (a wonderful performance from a near 80, Ellen Burstyn), daughter of a wealthy planter, is thinking of selling her house. She relies on the help of her niece, Willa (yet another understated performance from Patricia Clarkson). But, she has leased one of her warehouses, to an engagingly upbeat businessman (the business is disposal of hazardous waste), Texan Gus (Colin Firth, Texan accent and all).
Action takes place over two days or so.
The issues are those of the past. Miss Carr lives in the past (even her vocabulary and style of speaking and manners) and has to let go. The issues are also those of the present. Gus lives in the present and future and sees great prosperity for the town in undertaking delivery and processing of the waste. He is clearly attracted to Willa who has already recognised that he is just like her former husband, expecting anything he puts forward to be as enthusiastically taken up by others as he feels. What are her feelings towards him and helping her aunt with the dilemma about the warehouse and her selling the house? The issues are also the perennial ones of young love and prospects of jobs, improvement and marriage.
The screenplay brings these stories together and builds up to several climaxes. With the hazardous waste question, we hear strong arguments for the industry developments and what improvements it can bring to a town. We hear the caution about the waste and about safety. Neither side can claim the moral highground.
As with Robert Duvall in Get Low, Main Street is a film for experienced viewers who bring their own lives and questions to reflections on what the film offers.
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