Directed by
John Doyle
92 minutes
Rated PG
Reviewed by
Sharon Hurst
Main Street
Synopsis: In the dying town of Durham in South Carolina, the once-wealthy heir to a tobacco empire, Georgiana Carr (Ellen Burstyn) is renting her disused warehouse to Texan business man Gus Leroy (Colin Firth). She is also.facing selling her home. Her niece, Willa (Patricia Clarkson) comes to town on her aunt’s request for moral support. Meanwhile local cop, Harris (Orlando Bloom) is studying law in an attempt to impress Mary (Amber Tamblyn) and the mayor and his minions are having meetings to see whether the business Leroy is in could be the salvation for the fading town.What a stellar cast this production brings to the last script by Horton Foote, who wrote the screenplay of To Kill a Mocking Bird (1962). Main Street has a gentleness about it, and knowing that Foote was 92 when he wrote it (he died in 2009 aged 94) brings a poignancy to the whole thing. The old man obviously pined for the good old days of the American South, far from the intricacies and subtleties of a changing world. It is easy to understand then why the film is in many ways just too simplistic, a film that the recalls the dewy sentimentalities of Our Town (1940)
The main character of Miss Carr is a survival from the old days – a time when tobacco made the town, and her family, rich (forget about what other consequences it brought). The now nearly 80 year old Burstyn spends a lot of time misty-eyed, trawling through photo albums, reminiscing, and agonising over whether she can bring herself to sell the only house she has ever lived in, along with the remnants of Daddy’s empire. Unfortunately Burstyn is not really given enough script-wise to get her choppers into and the final upbeat lines she delivers are just too mawkish for words!
A better role is given to Colin Firth and despite critics attacking his Texan accent, it worked for me. Even here though, Leroy, given that he is a hard-edged business man, seems at times too soft for his own good. Clarkson, always a favourite of mine, again has not enough meaty lines to tackle. Bloom is one of the stronger roles – a man who knows what he wants of life and sets out to get it.
Shortcomings aside, Main Street is an entertaining, well-acted and pleasant-enough film with a heart-felt message, albeit delivered in a rather heavy-handed manner, and with some of movieland’s top talent on screen, worth a go.
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