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A bit of quality in a small major studio film, Gene Hackman, a year after leaving office as the most popular president in US history, and Ray Romano, owner of a local hardware store, define the word contrast as they contest for the mayoralty of a small town and the hand of a pretty veterinarian (Maura Tierney) in Welcome To Mooseport.
Something you don’t see a lot of, scriptwriter Tom Schulman gives both of the men character growth and personal insight and director Donald Petrie, often a hit or miss proposition, creates an authentic modern small town environment. Everybody knows each other and says good morning but they also play golf; one bit missing, now that I think about it, is an almost complete lack of home PCs or internet use. I suppose movie makers in general are still figuring out how to integrate something that doesn’t lend itself well to the visual demands of film.
A little nit: While they chose a great, completely suitable song to run over the end credits, Mayor of Simpleton, why did they use some unknown band called The Engine Room which I can’t even find in AllMusic instead of the classic powerpop original by XTC?
moderately recommended
