THE HOTTEST STATE
US, 2006, 117 minutes, Colour.
Mark Webber, Catalina Sandina Moreno, Laura Linney, Michelle Williams, Frank Whaley, Sonia Braga, Ethan Hawke.
Directed by Ethan Hawke.
The Hottest State is Ethan Hawke’s adaptation of his own novel for the screen. He has written the screenplay as well as directing. He also takes a cameo role as the father of the central character.
The film opens with groups of young people in Texas, nothing to do, idling the time, the girls becoming pregnant. It is the autobiography of a young man who eventually abandons his mother in Texas, goes to New York to become an actor, gets an opportunity to perform in a film, encounters a young woman and takes her to Mexico during the filming, has a lyrical relationship with her, but finds that she cannot sustain the relationship. He has to rely on friends to get him through the crisis – and to face his life again. He tries to track down his father and meets him in Texas with his new family. He also has discussions with his mother who has become embittered against her husband as she has grown older.
The film is a rather talkative narrative (akin to Hawke’s novel and his other very talkative film, Chelsea Heights).
Mark Webber (Winter Solstice) is very good as the gauche young man. Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace, Fast Food Nation) is the young woman, bewildered in the relationship. There is support from Michelle Williams as a good friend, from Hawk himself and, especially, Laura Linney as his mother. Hawk’s friends, director Richard Linklater and John Patrick Shanley appear as a John Wayne enthusiast and a priest respectively.
1.The title, the reference to Texas, its meaning? The memories of childhood? Tom Robbins’ quote that it’s not too late to have a perfect childhood?
2.The work of Ethan Hawke, his novel, adaptation? Experience, sensibility, narrative drive, strength of dialogue, understanding of relationships, psychology and inner states of mind and emotions?
3.The Texas opening, the two girls, the young men, the discussions? The conception? The flashbacks to Texas? The final return to Texas?
4.The New York City locations, the streets and apartments? Authentic?
5.The Mexican locations, the atmosphere?
6.The importance of music, the songs, the lyrics, the instrumental accompaniment, setting moods?
7.William’s narrative, the boys and the girls in Texas, the attempt to tell the joke, the fascination and falling in love? Going to the city? His conception? His observations about his parents, Texas, the past? The continued manifestation of his inner life?
8.William at twenty-one, experience, separating from his mother at fifteen, memories of his father’s promises that he would live with him at thirteen, their not being fulfilled? Alone? Wanting to be an actor? His awkward manner, self-image, in New York, Samantha and his other friends, his hopes, the auditions, the party in Camino Real? The scenes from the play, the rehearsals, the monologue from the film – and the relation of the monologues to William’s life?
9.His encounter with Sarah, the audience seeing her through his eyes, attracted, infatuated, falling in love, courting her? The significance of the many long scenes of discussions, dialogue, issues, relationships? The tone of the film with such talk?
10.The bond between the two, her not being able to love him, the discussions about the sexual relationship, its not happening? The scene of the rehearsing of the clichés of breaking up (and the audience hoping that this would not happen)? Sarah’s story of her life, her love, her boyfriend’s infidelity, her forgiving him, dropping out, the anger of her mother? The visit of Sarah and William to Sarah’s mother, her attitudes? The possibilities of the relationship, sex, her decision, the concern about condoms and pregnancy, his nervousness, non-consummation?
11.Persuading her to go to Mexico, the happy and idyllic time, the fullness of the relationship? But her leaving, not thinking it was real, yet saying it was the happiest time in her life?
12.William and the film, the monologue, his returning early, the flowers and dress, her eating porridge, the awkwardness, not talking (and memories of the break-up rehearsal earlier)? William and his intensity, silence, his outbursts, Sarah and her seeming indifference, cold, her feeling pressurised?
13.William meeting with his mother, the visit, the talk, his birthday, memories of the past? His mother as a character, relationships, memories of her marriage? The Christmas visit? His not listening to her about her own life? His concern about his father? His remembering his father, the present and his mother’s anger?
14.William’s father, in the memories, his leaving, the tension between husband and wife, his going to see him in Texas, the difficulties of the encounter, the father and his reticence, giving advice, William’s anger?
15.His visits to Sarah, shouting through the megaphone, declaiming Romeo and Juliet? The visits to her for his birthday, her present, the collage? His outbursts and anger?
16.His incessant phone calls, the obsessive nature of his relationship? Its consuming him interiorly?
17.The visit to Texas and his calm after the return, his visit, Sarah’s rehearsals, her life with her music, on tour? Her inviting him to listen, his leaving and her nodding?
18.The final return to Texas, his driving, his young parents in the back of the car?
19.A study of obsession and intensity? The male perspective on this kind of experience? (The character of Samantha, William talking with her, the possible sexual affair, it not happening, her resentment?)
