Parents' Guide to

The Hottest State

By S. Jhoanna Robledo, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Moody relationship drama is best for adults.

Movie R 2007 116 minutes
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A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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What's the Story?

In this surprisingly moving drama based on his novel of the same name, Ethan Hawke renders a painfully realistic picture of love and heartache. William Harding (Mark Webber) is a twentysomething New York City actor who likes to talk and looks longingly at the neighbors as they make out on the stoop. William may have slept with plenty of women, but he's still besotted with the idea of how love begins because his own parents met in a storybook way (though their marriage ended bitterly): His mother (Laura Linney) fell in love with the way his father (played by Hawke) told a joke. Then William meets Sara Garcia (Catalina Sandino Moreno), a college dropout-turned-musician. Instantly, they're entwined; after just four days, "there were flowers in [his] apartment and hummus in [his] refrigerator." But after a magical week in Mexico, where they almost elope, Sara pulls away, taking William's heart with her.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

The film feels somewhat slack in its early stages, meandering like it has all the time in the world. It's also far too stylized; like William, it's a little too deliberately unkempt. The scenes in which William and Sara dance around each other, trying to figure out whether they should plunge ahead, are labored by actorly dialogue, though they pull it off with aplomb. (Other lines feel much more genuine, as when William says of Sara, "She was human. The most human person I'd ever met, and that was sexy.") Hawke proves fairly effective at capturing the giddiness of falling in love, but he really finds his groove when the relationship abruptly falls apart and emotions get messy. He teases achingly truthful performances out of both leads (in the supporting cast, Michelle Williams is excellent as William's sometime-girlfriend). Viewers feel awkward sympathy for William, who just can't let go, and for Sara, too, who realizes she's not ready for intimacy -- at least, not the kind that William, who says he "loved every thought she ever had," is offering. When the film metamorphoses from a simple love-gone-awry piece into a full-bodied story and a statement on how our parents' marriage influences -- no, steers -- our own relationships, it finally feels satisfying.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the film's take on falling in and out of love. Is it really that messy and problematic? Or do these overly complicated beginnings (and endings) just happen in movies? If so, why is love so heightened and exaggerated in the media? Does the picture that the media paints of love influence our real-life expectations? How so?

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