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An up-and-down affair, "Main Street" has plenty going for it, but there are some potholes to clean up.
Sporting one heckuva cast, with a spectacular performance by Ellen Burstyn as Georgiana, a sassy old Southern gal who is the only one left to take care of her family's Durham, NC estate, complete with an empty warehouse that once house tobacco, but now sits empty.
She decided to lease the place, and does so unknowingly to a man who is storing toxic waste (Colin Firth, doing some kind of odd Texas accent), but whose presence in the town has potential to revive its flagging economy.
On the other hand we have a trite anti-romance, with a young woman (Amber Tamblyn) tiring of her already toxic hometown. She's dating her married boss (Andrew McCarthy!!), but has a content cop (Orlando Bloom, channelling Clifton Collins Jr.) begging for her affections. She's feeling the urge to fly from the next, but is afraid to.
It's these conflicting stories, meant to intertwine, that derails the film. They don't gel properly, and I found myself wondering what was happening in Burstyn's storyline whenever Tamblyn's popped up. The film meanders from one storyline to the next, with the only common theme being parents worrying about their children.
The cast is borderline amazing, adding Patricia Clarkson as Georgiann's neice and Tom Wopat (!) as Tamblyn's stepfather.
Firth is very good, and shares some tender moments with Clarkson's character, who brands him a villain from the start. But he seems a stand-up guy. Firth stretches a bit, considering he doesn't use his considerable charm and sharp wit, instead replacing it with a sort of slack-jawed sincerity to the role, where he could have been slimier.
I had a good time with the characters in this film, but I wish it had been two different films I saw them in. Still, "Main Street" for the most part is a parade worth seeing, even if there are a few floats in disrepair.