Sunshine State

Released 2002
Stars Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, James McDaniel, Ralph Waite, Richard Edson, Miguel Ferrer, Timothy Hutton, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Alexander, Gordon Clapp, Mary Alice, Bill Cobbs, Tom Wright, Alan King
Directed by John Sayles

How Florida's pirate past impacts on its present and future is probably too much for one movie to handle. Don't tell that to rebel writer-director John Sayles, who uses two families -- one black, one white -- to show how race, politics and land grabbing divide Floridians.

Edie Falco sparks the film as Marly, a divorcee who runs a motel owned by her retired dad (Ralph Waite). Once a mermaid in a local underwater show, Marly has let her dreams fade, but not her spirit. When her golf-pro lover (Marc Blucas) splits, she takes up with a landscape architect (Timothy Hutton) barely in town long enough for his building firm to run her out of business. Desiree (a stunning Angela Bassett) was fifteen and pregnant when she left home in the black enclave. She's back to confront her mother (Mary Alice, alive with fire and grace), a guardian to a teen arsonist (Alex Lewis) in a family house she refuses to sell.

Sunshine State is teeming with characters, from a chamber-of-commerce exec (Mary Steenburgen) and her banker husband (Gordon Clapp) to a black doctor (Bill Cobbs) who fights their urge to despoil in the name of progress. One developer (Alan King) describes the scam paradise he's building on swampland as "nature on a leash." You can feel the heat that ignites this gripping tale, and the humor and humanity that root it in feeling. Sayles knows how to use his social conscience: He lets it rip.

Summary by Peter Travers

I love John Sayle's movies. He takes his time to tell his stories, and he slowly peels the layers back to reveal his secrets. I like how he doesn't have shocking secrets that come out of the blue. Instead, he hints at them time and again until he chooses to reveal them. By the time each one comes out, we already know what it is, so it doesn't feel forced. One example in this movie is the identity father of Desiree's (Angela Bassett) baby. By the time it finally comes out in the open, the only person who doesn't know is the father himself. Of course, we've known since the beginning. These touches add depth to the story and create an easy-going atmosphere that you can sink into without feeling jerked around or cheated by the story. In other hands, this story could be high melodrama, but Sayles avoids it every time.

I could relate to this story about land developers and residents, because we just fought a similar situation against the evil Mayo Clinic who wanted to build 5-story buildings and parking ramps next to our subdivision. We went to the Zoning and City Council meetings, and all the members cared about was "progress" and money. They couldn't quite understand that we didn't want to stop the project. We were simply asking them to build to the existing zoning heights that every single building within seven miles of us had adhered to. It didn't matter. They were given carte blanche to do what they want, and we were ignored. I wish we would have had a leader like Dr. Elton Lloyd (Bill Cobbs) to stand up and fight. There was a nice moment when he challenged the Council that they had not been properly notified, and the Coucil member stated "they had met the legal requirements" of notification of the neighborhood. That was exactly what they told us too... Sayles really nailed this story with all of the different sides trying to get what they wanted without being good or evil. He was well-balanced in portraying everyone, which is something I would not have been able to do at this point in my life. --Bill Alward, February 4, 2003