Ray Romano, Gene Hackman, Maura Tierny, Marcia Gay Harden, Fred Savage, Rip Torn, Christine Barinski, directed by Donald Pietre
Therefore, I expected "Welcome to Mooseport", about an ex-president (Gene Hackman) who moves into his vacation home in Maine and ends up in a tight race for mayor against the town plumber, to produce non-stop laughs. I was a little dissapointed in that department, but while the film wasn't as flat-out hillarious as I expected, I think it was nevertheless a quality use of my time in other ways. I thought that the story was clever and inventive and the script seemed comfortable with its own voice. I especially thought the story's characters were engaging in terms of there wants and needs. The town wants a mayor, but neither of these two men really want to be mayor, Hackman being the more ambiguous of the two. He initially decides to be mayor because of the good publicity and he thought he was unopposed, but then he must stay in the race because he can't afford the PR damage and loss in speaking fees. However, things start to become interesting when Hackman's character starts to be driven by a number of other factors: pride, his advisors, a bit of contempt for his opponent, and of course, a woman. Ray Ramone's character, Handy, is driven by that same woman, his girlfriend (Maura Tierny) of 6 years and a desire to win her back.
It's pretty obvious that Handy doesn't need to run for mayor but just sit her down and tell her how much she means to him. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us because otherwise we wouldn't have our story, he has no common sense. That kind of girl/guy dynamic with two people too dumb to see how in love they are with each other, is characteristic of the screwball comedies of the 40s and 50s, and it does kind of feel like that. There are a lot of sudden turns and twists which link the main characters together in unforseen ways, and it's a lot of fun for us.
So as I said, the laughs are more spaced out than I initially expected, but the whole story is quirky enough on its own, that there was just an overall feeling of funniness with it. Also, in terms of humor, I have to give credit to Ray Romano and I'll admit that because the cast on "Everybody Loves Raymond" have grown so stale and routine with their roles, it's easy to forget his comic gifts. Not only did he tackle the part of the "blundering idiot" well, but he actually ad-libbed many of his own lines with such funny results, that several other members in the cast ended up borrowing his lines for their own part, and as a result, the best lines in the movie come straight from Romano.