Sunshine State (2002)

A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development.

Director:

John Sayles

Writer:

John Sayles

Stars:

Alex Lewis, Alan King, Angela Bassett

7 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Lewis	...	Terrell
Alan King	...	Murray Silver
Cullen Douglas	...	Jefferson Cash
Clifton James	...	Buster Bidwell
Eliot Asinof	...	Silent Sam
James McDaniel	...	Reggie Perry
Angela Bassett	...	Desiree Perry
Edie Falco	...	Marly Temple
Amanda Wing	...	Krissy
Timothy Hutton	...	Jack Meadows
Perry Lang	...	Greg
Miguel Ferrer	...	Lester
Gordon Clapp	...	Earl Pinkney
Kyle Meenan	...	Dick Yordan
Mary Steenburgen	...	Francine Pinkney

Storyline

Ambitious land developers descend on a tiny Florida coastline community, inhabited mostly by local yokels and elderly African Americans. Many of them don't want to see their homes and businesses sacrificed in the name of "progress" (a.k.a. condos, hotels, strip malls, and so on). But the city council appears to be all too willing to let them come in and develop the land. In addition, one weary hotel owner is thinking about giving in and selling. Meanwhile, one prominent African American athlete suddenly becomes interested in buying out his aging neighbors. So now that the wheels of progress appear to be in motion, it seems that a minor miracle is the only thing that can stop it.

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Plot Keywords:

florida | african american | neighbor | business | land developer | 

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Taglines:

Greetings from ...

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language, a sexual reference and thematic elements

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures Classics [us] - trailer, synopsis, etc.

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 July 2002 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

A Terra do Sol

Filming Locations:

Amelia Island, Florida, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,600,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£25,888 (UK) (26 July 2002)

Gross:

$3,064,356 (USA) (15 November 2002)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Anarchist's Convention Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The restaurant that Reggie Perry and Desiree Stokes Perry stop at to get directions at is at a actual motel in Yulee Florida. The beach store that is supposedly across the street is actually several miles away on Ameila Island.

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Goofs

Early in the film when Francine is talking with one of the developers, they pass a sign in the foreground that says "Amelia Island", the filming location, instead of the film's fictional location, Plantation Island.

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Quotes

Marly Temple: Shit happens, you know. A lot of it happened to me.

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Connections

References Lone Star (1996)

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Soundtracks

"Merle World"
Written by Kostas Lazarides, Jim Lauderdale
Performed by Jim Lauderdale
Courtesy of Dualtone Music

User Reviews

This film tries to handle too many situations

This could have been a great film. It could have been a great character study. Instead it tries to handle too many characters and subplots and not really delving into any one too deeply. In the end I really didn't care about any of the characters because I didn't really know any of them that well.

The writing was good. It would have been better to write about just a few of the characters rather than to try and write about the entire population of Florida.

Production values were excellant.

Most of the actors were good.

Bottom line: Only go to see this movie if you don't have anything else planned.