Hackman shreds Romano's performance in cheesy 'Mooseport'

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Friday, February 20, 2004

Hackman shreds Romano's performance in cheesy 'Mooseport'

By WILLIAM ARNOLD
SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Is TV's Ray Romano about to become a big movie star?

MOVIE REVIEW

WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT

DIRECTOR: Donald Petrie

CAST: Ray Romano, Gene Hackman, Maura Tierney

RUNNING TIME: 110 minutes

RATING: PG-13 for some brief sexual comments and nudity

WHERE: Alderwood 7, Cinema 17, Crossroads 8, Everett 9, Factoria, Galleria 11, Issaquah 9, Kirkland Parkplace, Longston Place 14, Marysville Cinema 14, Meridian 16, Metro, Mountlake 9, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza 12, Redmond Town Center, Renton Village, Woodinville 12

GRADE: C+

Based on the evidence of "Welcome to Mooseport," probably not -- although the movie has a cute premise and generates some chuckles, and the star of "Everybody Loves Raymond" is in no way an embarrassment in his first movie vehicle.

It's just that -- as for so many popular sitcom stars from Bob Newhart to Bill Cosby to Mary Tyler Moore -- the ingratiating, comfortable quality that makes him such a welcome visitor to our living rooms somehow vanishes when he's up there on the big screen.

He plays "Handy" Harrison, a plumber in the idyllic small town of Mooseport, Maine -- where Monroe Cole (Gene Hackman), the most popular U.S. president since Jack Kennedy, has a summer home and where, after two terms in office, he's now retiring.

And when -- through a credulity-stretching set of circumstances -- both men find themselves running for mayor and competing for the attentions of an attractive veterinarian (Maura Tierney), the stage is set for a classic Capraesque confrontation.

Meanwhile, the big joke that develops is in how the ex-president gradually invests millions of dollars in advertising and brings all the apparatus of a modern political campaign to bear in his increasingly ego-driven campaign to defeat the New England Everyman.

It's a clever idea for a political satire, and director Donald Petrie almost makes us believe it could happen -- especially in his scenes involving the ex-chief executive's perpetually frustrated and out-flanked handlers (Marcia Gay Harden, Rip Torn and Fred Savage).

Not surprisingly, old pro Hackman also clicks in his role. He gives a detailed, delightful, comic performance that never quite disintegrates into caricature, and he's so obviously having a great time doing it that it's totally infectious.

Unfortunately, the quality of the writing is nowhere near the standard of Hackman's performance, and the movie around him -- which is much closer to Adam Sandler than "Bulworth" -- too often substitutes sight gags involving geriatric nudity and fornicating canines for wit.

And Romano just doesn't have the stuff to bring off a role that requires a Jimmy Stewart or Tom Hanks. He's supposed to be overshadowed by his nemesis, of course, but Hackman chews him up and spits him out so effectively that the movie is glaringly lopsided.

P-I movie critic William Arnold can be reached at 206-448-8185 or williamarnold@seattlepi.com.