Directed by John Sayles

Written by John Sayles

Angela Bassett .... Desiree Perry
Edie Falco .... Marly Temple
James McDaniel .... Reggie Perry
Ralph Waite .... Furman Temple
Richard Edson .... Steve Tregaskis
Miguel Ferrer .... Lester
Timothy Hutton .... Jack Meadows
Mary Steenburgen .... Francine Pickney
Jane Alexander .... Delia Temple
Marc Blucas .... Scotty Duval
Gordon Clapp .... Earl Pickney
Alan King .... Eunice Stokes
Bill Cobbs .... Dr. Lloyd
Tom Wright .... Flash Phillips
Alex Lewis .... Terrell Bernard
Bernard McMurray .... Todd Northupsam
Perry Lang .... Greg
Charlayne Woodard .... Loretta
Clifton James .... Buster Bidwell
Cullen Douglas .... Jefferson Cash
Michael Greyeyes .... Billy Trucks

Produced by
Maggie Renzi .... producer
Nancy Schafer .... associate producer

Original music by Mason Daring

Cinematography by Patrick Cady

Film Editing by John Sayles

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, a sexual reference and thematic elements.
Runtime: 141
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM, and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG

Trailers, Photos -click here

Unfolding during the week-long Buccaneer Days Festival, a new “tradition” created by the local Chamber of Commerce, SUNSHINE STATE is set in Plantation Island, Florida, a place where local real estate development is changing a modest beachside community into an upscale, manicured resort for winter-weary Northerners. The long-time locals, are divided on whether to cash in or stand their ground. The newcomers are eager to enjoy the good life and/or make a quick buck. Plantation Island, like its residents, is in transition.

Marly Temple (Edie Falco) is living her father’s (Ralph Waite) dream of running a motel, only it has become her nightmare. Too sick to run the place himself anymore, her father is opinionated and ornery. Her mother (Jane Alexander) is immersed in the community theater group she runs like an impresario. Marly herself has given up her career as a “Weeki Wachee Mermaid” and her marriage to Steve (Richard Edson) is over. She begins a tentative romance with Jack Meadows (Timothy Hutton), a landscape architect recently arrived to transform a section of the island into a "natural" gated community. Now that her life consists of avoiding Steve, nursing hangovers and waking up with the wrong guy, Marly is tempted to accept a takeover bid for her motel from a strip mall developer..

In the next town over, Desiree Perry (Angela Bassett) has returned to visit and show off her new anesthesiologist husband, Reggie (James McDaniel). Sent away by her proud parents after she disgraced them by getting pregnant at 15, Desiree, like Marly, pursued a career in “show business.” But instead of Broadway or movies, her appearances have been limited to industrials and infomercials. Still intimidated by her strong-willed mother Eunice (Mary Alice), Desiree returns to find that her little hometown of Lincoln Beach, an African-American enclave created during the era of segregation, is, like its neighboring P.I., being eyed by developers. Her mother has taken in a relative, Terrell (Bernard Alexander Lewis), a troubled adolescent boy, and Reggie finds himself reluctantly pushed into being a role model. The emotional stakes are raised by the appearance of Flash Phillips (Tom Wright), the former football star who like Lincoln Beach, he too has fallen upon harder times. As both Marly and Desiree grapple with the sometimes-overwhelming weight of family history and family expectations, and wrestle with questions of love, duty and responsibility, SUNSHINE STATE offers an indelible portrait of two women, two families, and two communities standing on the brink of change.

There is a disparity between what things seem to be and what they really are. In the opening scene, we see a golf foursome talking about what a great thing they did, turning the undeveloped land of Florida -- a place of swamps and alligators and snakes and mosquitoes into "nature on a leash." The golf course seems so natural, but in reality, it is anything but.

John Sayles gives us example after example of the ways that every part of life carries this disparity. There always seems to be something a little beneath the surface that is totally different from the veneer we cover our lives with. It is true of relationships, business dealings, memories of the "good old days," traditions.

Sunshine State is a collection of stories all taking place within a small community. There is the story of Desiree Perry who has come back to town with her new husband since she was sent away as a pregnant teenager. (This is probably the most interesting of all the stories.) There is story of Chamber of Commerce leader Francine Pickney as she tries to pull off the 2nd Annual Buccaneer Days. She always keeps a smile on her face, even in the midst of serious apathy. There is the story Marly Temple, who runs the motel her father built, but her heart isn't in it. And there is the story of development, which keeps taking the small towns of Florida and making them just another part of McWorld.

As each story unfolds, we see that there is much that is either hidden from us or that we just don?t see. Marly's father Furman has gone blind, and it is a metaphor for the blindness that often affects us all. He doesn't see that his daughter is unhappy because the motel was his dream, not hers. He doesn't see that the "good old days" of segregation were filled with evil. He doesn't see that the way of life that his family has been part of for generations is dying.

It's not that the difference of what is and what we perceive is wrong in itself. There are times that the faces we put on really bring good about. (Desiree's mother Eunice is fixing a casserole for an old adversary who isn't feeling well. Desiree asks if she's finally buried the hatchet. Eunice replies, "No, but she's my neighbor.") Or at times even good things bring about unfortunate results. (Dr. Lloyd recalls the wonderful place Lincoln Beach used to be when it was the only beach in three counties where blacks were allowed. But civil rights brought an end to that, and to much more.) All of these things are a part of the undercurrent of events and relationships that we often overlook.

The film also deals with the conflict of various cultures -- the new comers who buy retirement homes, the long time white community, the long time black community. They all come into conflict as the process of change. And the conflicts also have more to them than just what is on the surface.

Sunshine State has been called preachy and didactic, and that's a fair assessment. But it is important for us to look at the tension of the real and the perceived. And Sayles does a good job of showing us many of the ways that we cover over the realities that we wish to avoid.

This isn't as tightly scripted as Sayles? Lone Star. There is so much going on in the film and the various stories that some of the things that get included really don?t add to the story and become distractions. It could be, that there was more to these aspects that was left on the cutting room floor (at 2:21, I expect there was some pressure to pare it down). But from time to time we begin to see a part of a story that seems to have some import, but we never find out why it matters.

In spite of these shortcomings, Sunshine State is a valuable chance to consider the world we are in not only on the surface, but also behind the smiles and the tears that make up life.

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