Four friends — all clam diggers in Long Island's Great South Bay during the mid-1970s — face changes in both their personal lives and the world around them in Katherine Dieckmann's likably low-key, character-driven dramatic comedy.
Autumn, 1976: Hauling clams out of the shallow waters of the Great South Bay has always been a precarious way to make a living, but for single, third-generation digger Hunt (Paul Rudd) and his South Shore friends — frustrated father of five Frankie (Ken Marino, who also wrote the script); local lothario Jack (Ron Eldard); mystically minded drug dealer Cons (Josh Hamilton) — times have never seemed tougher. South Shell, a large private fishing company, has set up operations in the area and begun leasing large swaths of formerly unrestricted waters for its exclusive use, driving the local diggers into smaller and faster-depleted sections of the bay; it now takes three days of backbreaking work to pull in what the guys used to make in one. Dire as the future may seem, Hunt has more immediate concerns when he meets his father for a day's digging only to find him dead from a heart attack. Though undoubtedly tragic, his sudden passing has an unexpected impact on Hunt's sister, Gina (Maura Tierney), a waitress at the local diner who'd been living with her father since divorcing her philandering husband (Mather Zickel). Now free of both men, Gina begins a casual affair with Jack but tries to keep it a secret from Hunt, whom she knows wouldn't approve. Hunt, meanwhile, has found someone of his own: Zoey (Lauren Ambrose), a cosmopolitan city girl who's come to the quiet South Shore town to escape the madness of her life in Manhattan. She admires the black-and-white Polaroids Hunt takes of inanimate objects and encourages him to take his art more seriously, but the only thing Hunt is taking very seriously in the confusing weeks following his father's death is Zoey.
Dieckmann made her debut with A GOOD BABY (2000), a poetic if heavy-handed adaptation of Leon Rooke's novel, and her follow-up feature again demonstrates her great skill in capturing the pathos and subtle desperation of small-town life. Dieckmann's touch has grown lighter — the subplot involving Frankie and his wife, Julie (Sarah Paulson), who's pressuring him to take a job with South Shell, is particularly well done — but all the obviously positioned props — a copy of The Hite Report, arguments over JAWS, an ad for Tab, repeated broadcasts of the Carter-Ford debates — scream "'70s!" far louder than necessary. The Big Star soundtrack, however, is perfect. leave a comment --Ken Fox
