Shooting Range
Beach Town by Mary Kay
Andrews is a breezy read, set against the backdrop of a film shoot in a small
town. The way the crew goes about the shooting is fascinating, and, very
amusing is the way the script is written and altered on the location—Bollywood
style.
The heroine is Greer Hennessy, who is assigned
to scout for a beach town location for a film starring a very popular singer
and a pretty, young starlet. Greer had
been having some career trouble and this film could bring her back into the
running.
She finds the perfect location in Cypress Key,
but she is up against the town’s mayor, Eben Thinadeaux, who practically owns
the place, and does not want a film crew causing havoc amidst the peaceful
community. He sees the value of
Hollywood dollars fuelling the town’s dud economy, but at same time, he does
not want heritage structures destroyed.
There is the meet-cute when Greer takes Ed to
be the motel janitor and orders him to kill a cockroach in her room. The
inevitable love story between them has a cast of colourful characters —the
self-important director, the bratty star, the wise owner of the town’s only
motel, her rebellious niece, Greer’s best friend who is the make-up in charge
having an affair with the director, the film’s drinking-carousing writer, Eb’s
slimy brother, Greer’s long-lost father and an old dog with a weak bladder. It
is always fun to read about how films are shot, and somewhat reassuring to find
that a Hollywood film shoot can also get messy, in spite of all the so-called
professionalism.
Beach Town
By Mary Kay Andrews
Published by: St Martin’s Press
Pages: 448
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