Surprisingly Main Street appears to be released with very little fanfare, surprising when you consider its cast list contains Oscar winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Christmas Carol). At the end of though the reason that Main Street isn’t being billed as the next big thing is because despite some wonderful acting the story really does the audience a little disappointed.
Set in North Carolina Main Street tells the story of a town that is dying… especially its main street. There is very little to offer young people like Mary Saunders (Amber Tamblyn – 127 Hours, TV’S House), and not even the offer of a relationship the man she loves, local cop, Harris Parker (Orlando Bloom – The Good Doctor, Sympathy For Delicious), is enough to make her want to stay in the town. Meanwhile local residents Willa (Patricia Clarkson – Easy A, Legendary) and Georgiana (Ellen Burstyn – Another Happy Day, TV’S Big Love) are offered an opportunity to put the town back into business when businessman, Gus Leroy (Firth) arrives in town and wants to store dangerous chemicals in Georgiana’s warehouse. Can Georgiana and Willa trust him enough to take him up on the offer.
Director, John Doyle (first time director) does his best to make this small-town story appeal to a wider audience but screenwriter, Horton Foote (Alone, Old Man) lets the film down with a script that seems to be all over the place. While the story around Gus, Willa and Georgiana holds the audience’s interest, the Harris and Mary story seems completely out of place and deserves a film of it’s own. Likewise Foote’s script is let down by a weak Act Three. While I won’t give away a spoiler, the accident that happened needed to be a lot larger than it actually was to affect Gus in the way it did. Foote really doesn’t have much of an idea of how to write suspense at all. It would also be interesting to hear his thoughts on what the last look exchanged between Harris and Mary is supposed to mean.
However, other parts of this film make it an absolute joy to watch. Colin Firth pulls off an American accent surprisingly well and it’s good to see Orlando Bloom back doing a dramatic role. But the real stars here are Patricia Clarkson and Ellen Burstyn. Each scene between the two becomes so good the audience can’t peel their eyes away, and you get the feeling that if the film hadn’t been such a letdown they may have actually attracted some Oscar buzz for their performances.
Main Street has its heart in the right place but just doesn’t have the script to pull it off. Luckily some great performances by Clarkson, Burstyn and Firth still make the film watchable.
Year: 2010
Director: John Doyle
Stars: Colin Firth, Amber Tamblyn, Orlando Bloom, Patricia Clarkson, Ellen Burstyn
Classification: G
Runtime: 92 mins
Rating:
