Synopsis: The issue of real estate enterprises in Florida is tackled in this film, as well as the ecological and cultural changes they entail. Several groups of characters are introduced that have a relation with said issue. A divorced restaurant and motel owner, whose father is a retired diabetic ex-cop and whose mother is a theater coach, and who was married to a rock singer, and who is breaking up with a golf player, and who begins a relationship with a landscape designer for a big real estate company. An infomercial actress who left town when she got pregnant at 15 - from a football player who is now a real estate and car salesman - and then lost the baby and got married to an anaesthesiologist, and is back to visit her mother who is taking care of an orphaned nephew who is facing a trial for arson. A retired doctor who is campaigning against the development of a big real estate project on the island. Some rich golfers who play at a field where once was the island cemetery. An event organizer and host who is married to a suicidal man.
Appraisal: Since we're dealing with real estate here, let me use a related metaphor and say that this film is just like a prefabricated house. Everything is completely schematic and clichéd, and there is not one character that resembles or speaks like a real person. The author effects a didactic exposition of the problems faced by a certain kind of town, using all the techniques of good old "socialist realism". The characters speak like in a play - the most conspicuous instances of this are the ex-cop, the golfers and the retired doctor; but in fact, in varying degrees, this applies to all characters in the movie. Every character is made to embody a certain stereotype that conforms to the author's preconceptions of a certain class of individuals: the reactionary, the rich, the liberal, etc. A film without a single shred of life or spontaneity. It's simply a statement of how well informed the writer is (or thinks he is) about "important" social issues.
Rating: 25
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