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November 7, 2008
"A lot of bad shit is gonna happen to you. People are not gonna love you back, and if you're serious about becoming an artist, that's the first thing you should learn. And, listen, you're gonna die, okay? Relatively soon, okay? So, that being said, you have nothing to worry ab...( read more)out. No matter what happens in this life you have two options, only two options: you can handle things well and be happy or you can handle them poorly and be miserable. It's up to you."
Ethan Hawke has long since grown beyond the 'wooden pretty boy' we saw in some of his early film roles. His collaboration with Richard Linklater and Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise/Sunset showed Hawke to have a good sense of authentic dialogue, and to be damn smart as well. I know a lot of people thrive on calling him self-indulgent and pretentious, but - and I never hid that I'm a fan - sensitive and intelligent have always been more appropriate terms for me. So, it was with great joy that I found The Hottest State, Hawke's adaptation of his 1997 novel and his solo screenwriting debut (and third time directing), to be a perceptive, intelligent, and emotionally honest take on love and obsession.
Hawke had already proved himself (with his Oscar nomination for Before Sunset) as a talented writer, but he had Linklater and Delpy by his side. Here he doesn't. It's all him. And he proves himself again to be a natural storyteller, with an exacting eye for detail and an unobtrusive but layered style. The basic storyline of The Hottest State is fairly routine coming of age stuff, but Hawke's talent for finding truth in precise bits of behaviour and dialogue allows him to transcend the more obvious elements of his concept.
Told in the form of 20-year-old actor William Harding's (Mark Webber) flashback - so we know from the start that things aren't going to turn out happily - the story revolves around William's relationship (and its aftermath) with Sarah Garcia (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a beautiful, flighty would-be singer with whom he falls madly in love. During a torrid week spent together in Mexico, the two fly rapidly from first hooking up to nearly getting married. But after William returns to New York City, after staying in Mexico an extra month for an acting job, he finds that things are suddenly different. The hottest of relationships is suddenly the most perplexing of break-ups, and the rest of the film is devoted to William's difficulty trying not to be pathetic or obsessive in the face of rejection, and his struggle to make some sense of it all. "Where did you go?" he asks her.
Smart, sexy and achingly true, The Hottest State is both funny and heart-breaking. If you've ever experienced a relationship in which things suddenly changed and you couldn't figure out how or why the hell it happened, you'll know that Hawke has hit the nail on the head here. If you've ever apologized after the other person's behaved like a lunatic, desperately hoping it would somehow fix things, then you'll see your own experiences reflected here.
The film's funny, bitter-sweet tone is extremely reminiscent of Annie Hall, but unlike the makers of countess other Woody Allen knockoffs, Hawke takes the best of this influence without being enslaved by it. Ths is perhaps the first of the Annie Hall imitations that actually earns the comparison, thanks to both its profound depth and Hawke's amazing ability to encapsulate complex emotions and ideas in simple, economical gestures and images.
Particularly noteworthy is the film's use of décor and environment to convey the characters' states of mind; production designer Rick Butler uses furniture, artwork, and the colours of the location walls to emphasize or add dimension to Michael and Sarah's constantly shifting feelings for each other. And it isn't only the content of individual scenes that generates meaning, but the relationship of one scene's imagery to the others; when Michael goes home after breaking up with Sarah, a few quick shots of his mother's symmetrically cosy house give the viewer a complete comprehension of why Michael longs for the urban chaos represented by his life with Sarah.
This visual approach is subtle, and one that doesn't consciously register with the viewer. Like so many great actors-turned-directors (Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, George Clooney, Sarah Polley... hell, Ben Affleck!), Hawke knows how to make carefully planned imagery look effortless. He trusts his script and his actors enough to stay out of their way, with long takes and camera work that allows his performers to breathe - much in the way that he and Julie Delpy were allowed to dominate the frame in Before Sunrise and Sunset.
Webber, who has done solid work in a number of other films, including Dear Wendy and Hollywood Ending, gets the best role of his career thus far with William, a guy who's alternately sympathetic, witty, and annoying, and whose behaviour will be completely recognizable to anyone who has ever known (or been) a neurotic 20-year-old man. As the object of William's affection, Moreno is staggering and striking in a somewhat difficult part; she has to play Sarah as both a fully realized character and an idealized figment of William's romantic imagination, and she pulls off both layers of the role brilliantly. It helps that Hawke is clearly as enamoured of her (aesthetically, anyway), as William is - Moreno is photographed as lovingly and sensually as any actress since Grace Kelly in Rear Window.
And, as one might expect from a film directed by an accomplished thespian, The Hottest State surrounds its leads with superb supporting players, from Laura Linney and Ethan Hawke himself as Michael's parents, to Michelle Williams as his ex-girlfriend. Even extremely small parts - like extras in the bar scenes - are well-defined, with funny bits of dialogue and business. Hawke refuses to slough off a single character or scene, and his precision makes universal truths that we've seen in dozens of other films seem fresh and original - we may have encountered some of these ideas in other films, but never in quite this way.
The film also makes great use of music (and music is apart of it, in a way), sprinkling the soundtrack with songs that enhance numerous scenes, reflecting the mood well. Most of the songs were written by Jesse Harris and performed by a variety of bands and singers/songwriters, from Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Norah Jones and Feist to M. Ward and Rosario Ortega (who provides Sarah's singing voice). It's a film that is very much worth listening, too.
Ultimately, William travels home to Texas (Hawke's home state), where he hasn't been, and as a result hasn't seen his father, since childhood. Looking for answers to his heartbreak over Sarah, and his bitterness over being abandoned by his dad, William comes asking for advice. Despite his total failure as a father, he does have one good piece of advice: "People who give up on love aren't worth loving."
"The root of depression is being too self-involved, and the cure... is to read. Okay? So, read some books."
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