This movie is bad. I don’t mean bad like Bloodrayne or The Room. Those at least have the makings of being cult classics. Main Street is just plain bad. It was actually recommended by my friend Luka who then watched it with Alicia, and they told me it would probably make me angry. I decided to watch it anyway because… I don’t know why exactly.
This drags out interminably, I have no idea what was the main plot other than some vague thing about toxic waste, a warehouse, and somehow this was supposed to make the town rich. There was zero character development, and you never actually find out what the point is to LeRoy being there, Harris learning law, or Mary’s relationship with Howard or her going to Atlanta. All of her interactions with Howard seemed so awkward like she wasn’t really mentally checked in, and then she’s heartbroken to learn he has a wife and kids, and then suddenly she’s fired, but you don’t see that happen, it’s just mentioned in passing. The only thing you ever find out for certain is why Georgiana has to sell her house because that entire beaten to death story arc about the death of tobacco is told over and over and over.
Why does LeRoy choose Durham, which makes no sense at all? What exactly is he supposed to do to revive this struggling town (which was definitely not the case in 2010, by the way)? Why is the city council so ready to just jump on his bandwagon with zero information? Why could no one actually come up with a decent southern accent except Frank? I actually reached a point where I had to turn off the sound and watch with subtitles because I couldn’t get past the accents.
So this travesty came out in 2010 from 1984 Films. It was directed by John Doyle and written by Horton Foote. It stars Colin Firth as Gus LeRoy, Orlando Bloom as Harris, Patricia Clarkson as Willa, Amber Tamblyn as Mary, and Ellen Burstyn as Georgiana.
Betsy Goes to the Movies 