Welcome to Mooseport (2004)
Directed by Donald Petrie
Written by Tom Schulman
Starring Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Christine Baranski, Maura Tierney
Release Date February 20th, 2004
Published February 19th, 2004
The transition from TV to the big screen is never without its growing pains. Jennifer Aniston endured films like The Object of My Affection before finding success in The Good Girl. Helen Hunt endured Twister before her Oscar nominated role in As Good As It Gets. For comedian Ray Romano, his growing to big screen stardom begins by enduring the comedic misfire Welcome To Mooseport. On the bright side, at least he got to work with Gene Hackman.
In Mooseport, Romano plays a small-town handy man named Handy. Handy owns a hardware store where a group of local oddballs hang out. His girlfriend is a veterinarian named Sally (Maura Tierney), who he's romanced for six years without mentioning marriage. Handy has also just landed a very lucrative gig fixing the bathroom of the summer home of the now former President of the United States.
Gene Hackman is Monroe Eagle Cole, the most popular former President in history, having left office with an 80 percent approval rating. This is despite the fact that he was the first President to divorce while in office. The former first lady, played by Christine Baranski, took everything but his former title and his summer home in Mooseport.
At a party celebrating the President's arrival a group of town elders asks the President if he would like to run for mayor. The current mayor has passed on and there is apparently no one else running. The President was going to say no until he meets Sally who suggests it would be a good idea. In an attempt to impress her the President takes the gig. Unfortunately, there is one other person who has decided to run. Handy.
This sets up what should be an interesting comic idea. A small town guy running for mayor against the former leader of the free world is a rich comic idea. Throw in the President’s two aides Grace (Marcia Gay Harden) and Bullard (Fred Savage) and it gains even more potential. However, director Donald Petrie (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Miss Congeniality) is more interested in the romantic triangle between Romano, Tierney and Hackman and misses the endless opportunity for political satire.
Ray Romano is attempting to break loose from his TV persona and forge a career on the big screen. This role sadly will not help his case. Romano is stiff and often lifeless opposite a pro like Hackman who blows him off the screen. Hackman shows once again how great and underappreciated he is as a comic actor. He was the best part of the con-woman comedy Heartbreakers and he is by far the best thing in Welcome To Mooseport. Of the actors who have played the President of the United States onscreen, Hackman may be the most credible. Hackman has the persona, the gravitas that makes it very easy to believe he's the President. Not that it really matters in a film as dull and lifeless as this one.
Director Donald Petrie is another of those directors that delivers mediocre test screened comedies that studios love because they are inoffensive and more often than not cheap to produce. Welcome To Mooseport reeks of a film that was greenlit with the hope that it might be good but if it isn't, the studio can toss it on to the February schedule and watch it die a slow death before selling it on DVD and TV to cover the expenses. I hope they got their money's worth because that is apparently all that matters.
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