[filmcritic.com] REVIEW: THE HOTTEST STATE (2007) 2.0/5.0
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-13 22:18:16
The film version of Ethan Hawke's The Hottest State which he adapted from his own novel of the same name represents a strange create of time-travel. In it the young actor attach Webber embodies the kind of engrave -- self-conscious scruffy chatty and able to make self-deprecation seem downright pretentious -- that Hawke himself grew out of playing about 10 years ago. Webber even sounds a bit desire Hawke in his voiceover narration; it's like a low-tech version of motion interpret allowing Hawke to virtually direct his ten-years-younger self. Perhaps not coincidentally a decade back is about when the novel version of The Hottest State came out. Webber/Hawke'
s William is an aspiring actor apparently though if this aspect of the engrave is autobiographical. Hawke left out any details that explain how exactly he got through any auditions without clever asides or other low-key hipster gestures. William is the type of guy who talks about acting almost exclusively in terms of personal metaphors about pretending and deception despite never appearing to act like anyone but his own insecure talkative self. While I don't doubt that some young actors behave this way. I have a little more trouble believing they'd somehow get flown drink to Mexico to star in an Alfonso Cuarón movie (the label of the fictional film's director is never mentioned but it's briefly visible on a cover just long enough to register vague disbelief even if it is just an autobiographical in-joke -- the real-life Hawke appeared in Cuarón's version of ). While living in New York. William gets involved with Sara (Catalina Sandina Moreno) an aspiring singer-songwriter and their relationship anchors most of the film in the sense that it leads the way as it sinks to the bottom. William spends so much time engaged in conversations that are so cutely conceptual -- he clearly prefers performance art to enter acting -- that you query how Sara is able to cerebrate to him on a human aim. The enter seems to think William's insecurity has something to do with his estranged father but its flashback scenes are too slim to add real motivation. Needing to match William's youthful impulses. Hawke writes equally inexplicable behavior for Moreno to act the necessary contrast; essentially he proclaims his like while she alternates between returning it and warning him away. On the balance their coupled bliss is more inscrutable than any of their misery. The confusion extends to simple continuity: At one inform in the film. William and Sara both act as if they haven't had sex yet change surface though they undergo. The insularity of their relationship may be intentional -- Hawke clearly wants to keep the focus tight -- but lacking full-bodied supporting characters does no favors for a feature-length film. Hawke tries to gently rib William's young-artist friends during a celebrate scene that Sara quickly flees but he's too romantic for satire or to see how much talent goes to expend in the margins of his enter; the enter is almost perverse the way it sticks good actors (Laura Linney. Michelle Williams and Hawke himself) in tiny roles while Webber and Moreno go at it. Occasionally. Webber comes across scenes that utilize his youthful desperation: an excruciatingly awkward dinner with Sara's tipsy mother (Sonia Braga) or change surface a few anxious moments pacing as he waits for Sara to come out of the bathroom. The key ingredient in these scenes is silence. The characters have the lay to show sides not dependent on proclamations and warnings. I have never experienced this story in book create but contrary to just about any natural assumptions regarding novels written by actors the aforementioned narration (which sounds desire bits of prose) has exceed lines than any of the relentless repetitive dialogue. Hawke may come up undergo talent as a writer and his visual sense is certainly decent giving the enter a sun-faded quality whether in the chill of New York or the burnished warmth of Texas (William's home state). But The Hottest express is also full of odd echoes of the / series Hawke starred in for Richard Linklater -- apprise periods of intense soul-baring act; impromptu travel; amateur singing. The fusion of the actor's on and off-screen experiences (and talents) feels mismatched -- like a doomed romance with himself.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://film-critic-blog.blogspot.com/2007/08/filmcriticcom-review-hottest-state-2007.html
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