Sunshine State

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Creates a cinematic mosaic of American lives unprecedented in its range, balance, subtlety and even-handedness.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The scenes unfold with such unhurried delicacy, and the characters are so intriguing, you can ignore the editorial bluntness and savor the smaller, sweeter details.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

The dialogue is scattered with so many beautiful gems that conversations glitter.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Sayles' film moves among a large population of characters with grace, humor and a forgiving irony.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Visually, even compared to Sayles' own best work, it's somewhat prosaic - and dramatically, it suffers from the fact that its two main characters are kept so far apart. But the screenwriting and the cast redeem this film.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Few white directors depict racial interaction in a thoughtful, non-exploitative way, but Sayles has always been one of them.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Although it's often uneven and rambling, its sum conveys an unusual richness and satisfaction. While most films these days are about nothing, this film seems to be about everything that's plaguing the human spirit in a relentlessly globalizing world.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Part of the joy of watching a John Sayles film is to see how he knits together so many people and stories into a densely layered, always absorbing whole.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Almost two and a half hours long, and mostly consists of calm conversations. But don't be deterred, or you'll miss out on a study of character, class and changing times that puts Robert Altman's stodgy "Gosford Park" to shame.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

You can feel the heat that ignites this gripping tale, and the humor and humanity that root it in feeling. Sayles knows how to use his social conscience: He lets it rip.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Far more interesting and intelligent than anything coming out of the studios. It fairly brims with superb performances by a terrific cast - you simply can't take your eyes off the female leads, Edie Falco and Angela Bassett.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

What Sunshine State lacks in momentum, it makes up for with a Dickensian sprawl of characters -- 50 in all -- who possess the depth and humanity that has become a Sayles trademark.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Rings true for the most part, and explores human nature - leashed and unleashed - in ways that resonate.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

The whole of Sunshine State is less than the sum of its parts, but the parts are often lovely, and always true.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Sayles' films are always of interest, and even though the partly cloudy Sunshine State is not the writer-director at his best, even his letdowns often have more to offer than other people's successes.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The usual Sayles mix of torpor and talent prevails here.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

If Sayles had maneuvered these stories and performances into even a shade more sentimentality or gravitas, the weight would have collapsed them like a house of cards. As it is, they breathe easily, delicately into each other.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Like "Lone Star," this group portrait mourns a rapidly vanishing American landscape while acknowledging that the past, free of corporate homogeneity though it may have been, is never the unspoiled paradise it appears in retrospect.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Unlike in similar past efforts, Sayles never finds a way to bring it all together. Individual moments of considerable impact alternate with stretches that go nowhere.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Though his latest, Sunshine State, shows Sayles usual literary care, it's a very slight work compared with such cinematic tomes as "Lone Star," "Matewan" and "Eight Men Out."

USA Today Claudia Puig

Sayles is clearly aiming to construct a multilevel character study and sociological portrait, but too often the film lapses into a lecture.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

These are valid ideas, but they don't always arise organically out of the script, and can seem clumsily expressed.

Variety Robert Koehler

Falco, light years from "The Sopranos," is exquisitely vulnerable and her scenes play well with Hutton, in his finest role in years as a good man who knows he's sold out.

The New Yorker David Denby

Has some of the wittiest writing Sayles has ever done for the movies and some of the best acting he's ever coaxed out of his performers, and the picture is a pleasant, if unexciting, experience. [8 July 2002, p.84]

Chicago Reader J. R. Jones

When Sayles has a compelling story line he's one of America's finest (Matewan, Lone Star), but when he doesn't he can be dull and unfocused. Filling out the latter category is this ensemble drama about piracy, both personal and economic, on an island off the coast of northern Florida.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Like a blue plate special at a theme diner, Sunshine State comes with a lot of overdone side dishes thrown on the table at the same time.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The only gold in Sunshine State comes from its three female stars.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's ambitious, sharply observed and spectacularly well-acted like so much of Sayles' canon. But it's also overstuffed and underdeveloped.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

An attempt at an epic. Sayles assembles a big cast and creates a mosaic of interweaving characters and story lines. But the stories are bland, the connections are incidental and the dramatic payoff is nonexistent.

Boston Globe Sam Allis

There is almost no drama, nor any surprise, in this long effort.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Despite his fascinating subject and an impressive cast -- Sayles lets his story drift in too many directions, as if he'd lost his Florida road map somewhere along the way during his travels.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Sodden and glum, even in those moments where it's supposed to feel funny and light. It makes you feel trapped and flailing as the minutes tick by. If it encapsulates anything, it's the experience of drowning, not waving.