Welcome to Mooseport Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)February 21st, 2004
WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT
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'Handy' Harrison (Ray Romano, TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond) is comfortable with his six year relationship with small town vet Sally (Maura Tierney, TV's "ER") and his hardware store/plumbing business. Then the arrival of retiring President Monroe 'Eagle' Cole (Gene Hackman) throws Handy's life into turmoil when he finds himself squaring off against Cole in both a mayoral race and romantic triangle in "Welcome to Mooseport."
Mooseport opens with a nice synonym for its story, tracking the shoes of a runner heading down the main drag of a small town. But then the camera pulls back to reveal the runner as elderly nudist Harv, an eccentric the entire town appears to accept, and we realize perhaps the filmmakers had never intended the symbolism. Lazy screenwriting drags down the efforts of two Oscar winners, Tierney and quirky supporting players all surrounding a television star making an unexciting leap onto the big screen.
Mooseport is beside itself when recently-divorced Cole decides to make his summer home a permanent residence and many locals, Handy included, have been employed fixing up the presidential estate. When Handy tells Sally that now that he's got an extra $17 grand he might be 'ready,' she thinks he's finally going to pop the question, but is deflated to learn he intends to buy a new truck. At a celebration to welcome the popular, retired president, Sally catches his eye, then his interest, when she's asked her opinion about his stepping in to replace the town's recently deceased mayor. Cole is faced with a potential public relations disaster when he discovers that Handy has also put his name into the running, but he smoothly gets the plumber to agree to back out - until, that is, Cole unwittingly asks Handy's girlfriend out on a date and she accepts. The national media descend upon Mooseport to cover not only its mayoral election but the ex-President's wooing of his foe's former girlfriend.
Screenwriter Tom Schulman ("Holy Man") begins tripping all over himself with his initial character establishments. Cole is introduced as the most popular U.S. President ever, one who left office with a sky-high 85% approval rating, yet 'Eagle' only appears to be an egomaniac obsessed with the high fees his speaking engagements will fetch, the size of his presidential library, and besting Bill Clinton. His politically smooth exterior masks condescension towards the locals and an ex-wife (Christine Baranski, providing some of the few funny bright spots of this film) out to milk him for all she can get. He's also either too stupid or too blinded by his own ego to realize that the Secret Service has been augmenting his golf game since way back when he became elected governor. Handy is exactly the same type of low-key schmo Romano plays on TV, yet the first indication we get that he's running for mayor comes about as a surprise plot twist that is the wrench thrown into Cole's campaign. I may be giving the screenplay too much credit to suggest that we're shown Handy is no birddogger by his alarmed separation of his male pooch Plunger from the President's canine lady. Established character traits also play no part in Handy's motivation in an ineptly handled sequel setup at the film's conclusion.
The movie's romantic triangle has no tension whatsoever as the president's interest in Sally seems pretty arbitrary (his assistant, well played by Marcia Gay Harden, is his obvious eventual partner) and there is no rooting interest in seeing her reestablish her relationship with hangdog Handy either (their eventual engagement scene takes a plumbing joke to unlikely extremes). The film also only sports about three genuine laughs - Air Force One's taking runway precedence over a vet's helicopter dangling a donkey, Baranski's golf course outburst and Mooseport's charming tradition of beginning town hall debates with a rock-paper-scissors contest.
"Welcome to Mooseport" had me hoping that a February release featuring Hackman could be the surprise that was the underrated "Heartbreakers" back in 2001, but it's merely a Romano vehicle that too quickly runs out of gas.
C-
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