Despite cast, 'Mooseport' won't get your vote

• About the ratings
• Write your own review
• Back to main page

By Omar Gallaga
American-Statesman Staff

Posted: February 20, 2004

"Welcome to Mooseport," a comedy starring Gene Hackman and Ray Romano, has nearly the same plot — an ex-president moves to a small town and gets caught up in a rivalry with a local doofus — as a classic episode of "The Simpsons."

Guess which one is funnier?

Homer Simpsons and Co. win out even though "Mooseport" seems to have a lot going for it. As ex-president Monroe "Eagle" Cole, Hackman is flinty as usual; Ray Romano is believable and mostly amusing as a goofball plumber who runs for mayor and unwittingly is swept up in a political race against the retired former president; Marcia Gay Harden shows a nice light touch — it's welcome after the weighty "Mystic River" — as the former commander in chief's able assistant. And with scene stealers Rip Torn, Christine Baranski and Fred Savage filling out the supporting ranks, you'd think "Mooseport" would at least generate strong chuckles.

You'd be wrong. "Mooseport" lacks laughs and its constantly shifting tone keeps it from ever becoming a cohesive comedy. Is it a quirky small-town-charmer, something like "Dave" meets "Northern Exposure?" A sappy, not-so-sharp political satire ("Wag the Shaggy Dog")? A romantic comedy ("How to Lose the Mayor in 10 Days")?

The premise seems rife with promise: Hackman's President Cole leaves office as the most popular president in history, an avid golfer with a multimillion-dollar book deal, plans for a huge presidential library and a lucrative speaking tour in his future. He retires to his vacation home in Mooseport, Maine, where he's persuaded to run for mayor. The only obstacle: Romano's Handy Harrison already filed and now the ex-pres is caught in a very public mayoral election. "Eagle" Cole also gets involved with Romano's longtime girlfriend (Maura Tierney, who grates in the clichéd role of humorless, put-upon girlfriend), generating even more media coverage before the whole election becomes a national story, gleefully covered on Fox News.

The film seems to traffic in nothing but clichés. The townspeople are honest and hard-working, the ex-pres a power-hungry egomaniac who stoops to negative campaigning when things don't go his way. (Most beloved president ever? He's got Nixon's paranoia and is obsessed with beating Clinton's post-presidential honorariums.) Harden's character has a crush on the crusty old Oval Officer and the man who was once the most powerful person in the world doesn't figure it out until it's too late. "Eagle" Cole's ex-wife is, of course, a shrewish rhymes-with-witch (Baranski, rising above limp material) who'll stop at nothing to get half of his book royalties.

The specter of TV looms long over this film beyond that "Simpsons" episode. Ray Romano is playing his "Everybody Loves Raymond" character (goofy, stupid about the ways of women) and Maura Tierney, of "ER," has little to do but frown at her character's dating predicament (much like her character on the TV show). You half expect Doris Roberts to come looking for Raymond or Dr. Carter to call Tierney in to intubate a patient.

Most sadly, the film simply forgets to be funny. It feels reined in by its refusal to get political (the president's party affiliation or any of his accomplishments are never even hinted at) or to commit to any solid genre ground. By the time Hackman and Romano take to the golf course to resolve their dilemma, you might be snoozing, as an audience member behind me began to midway through the film.

Maybe it's the perfect election-year film — it hedges, it overpromises and in the end, it just wants to win your vote at the box office. But there's not much there in "Mooseport." You won't be able to tell it apart from all the other candidates.

ogallaga@statesman.com; 445-3672