welcome to mooseport

Making the transition from the comfortable grind of a successful weekly TV series to the bright lights of big-time Hollywood movies has produced more than a few casualties. For every Michael J. Fox or Tim Allen fortunate enough to find the right material, thereÕs a sad-sack like David Caruso who gambled and lost. Others like Jerry Seinfeld are just too smart to try. Ray Romano finds himself in a reasonably good position with ÒWelcome to Mooseport,Ó surrounded by some great actors (Gene Hackman, Marcia Gay Harden, Maura Tierney) and a slew of small town oddballs. So imagine the irony that itÕs Romano himself, and his rambling slow-paced delivery, that seem out of place. When the backwater burg invites the most popular ex-president in history (played to the hilt by Hackman) to be its Mayor, they spark a media feeding frenzy as RomanoÕs handyman character decides to start his own campaign Ð incensed that his long-time girlfriend (Tierney) accepted a date from the commander in chief. The story allows for plenty of political gags as the ex-presidentÕs staff (including a high-strung Fred Savage of ÒThe Wonder YearsÓ) run into an unfamiliar set of small town rules Ð like the rock, paper, scissors contest that determines who speaks first in a debate. What follows is a contest of one-upmanship between the two candidates, with RomanoÕs political career gathering momentum despite itself against the presidentÕs well-oiled machine. ÒMooseportÓ is a comfortable comedy, full of the expected small-town clichŽs (a local who jogs in the nude doesnÕt get a second glance) and two men trading insults over a job they donÕt even want. The fact that certain points in the plot seem contrived (why RomanoÕs character would even put his name in the running never makes sense) is forgivable when the overall movie is so pleasant. But Romano is too loose with the jokes; stumbling through lines of dialogue in his familiar way, when sticking to the script would have been just fine. Everyone around him gets bigger laughs in half the time. For all his star power, one canÕt help thinking that ÒWelcome to MooseportÓ would have been a much better movie without Ray Romano in it.