Details

Abstract / Summary

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.

Field of Interest

Film

Accolades / Awards

Won 2002 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, Best Supporting Actress, Won 2002 New York Film Critics, Online, Best Supporting Actress

Publisher

Alexander Street Press

Copyright Message

Copyright © 2002. Reproduced by permission of John Sayles.

Director

John Sayles, 1950-

Content Type

Script

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Sub Genre

Drama

Page Count

139

Performer

Alex Lewis, fl. 2002-2002, James McDaniel, 1958-, Angela Bassett, 1958-

Producer

Maggie Renzi, fl. 1983-2010, Nancy Schafer, fl. 1994

Producer - Institution

Anarchists' Convention Films

Publication Year

2007

Publisher

Alexander Street

Place Published / Released

Alexandria, VA

Release Date

2002

Subject

Film, Music & Performing Arts, Literature & Language, 2000s, North American Films, Town life, Life stages, Family loyalty, 2000s, US-Canadian Films, Canadian Films, American Films, Terrell Wilkins, Reggie Perry, Desiree Stokes Perry, Marly Temple

Keywords and Translated Subjects

2000s, US-Canadian Films, Canadian Films, American Films