I have a confession to make. I love Toni Collette. With that out there, I knew there was no way I’d miss “United States of Tara.” I was onboard the minute she became attached. Executive-produced by Steven Spielberg, and created and written by Diablo Cody, “Tara” has all the makings to be a hit for Showtime.
It’s witty with just the right amount of absurd. Cody, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “Juno,” easily weaves a web of intriguing and complex characters. The pop culture relevance remains, but happily none of the characters are spouting phrases like “honest to blog.”
A smart dramedy about mental illness, “United States of Tara” strays far from preachy thanks mostly to the aforementioned absurdity and strong ensemble cast. Collette (“Little Miss Sunshine”) shines as Tara, a married mother of two with dissociative identity disorder. The Academy Award-nominated actress has the acting chops to pull off every one of her characters, from Tara to Buck, the biker dude, to the Stepfordy housewife Alice, to T, the sexed-up trouble-making teen. John Corbett (“Sex and the City”) finds himself in the role of the straight-man in the zany comedy duo of Tara/T/Buck/Alice and his character, Tara’s husband, Max. Brie Larson plays Kate, the couple’s rebellious daughter who often gets in trouble with T, and Keir Gilchrist is their son, Marshall. Marshall, an openly gay teen with a crush on his film school classmate, is accepted by his parents, but not all of his mother’s personalities.
“Tara” debuted to relatively strong ratings for a cable network — Showtime predicts about 1.5 million factoring in the re-airings — and has received heaps of critical buzz. I wouldn’t be surprised if Collette receives an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of essentially four completely different characters.