Add one former president, one local plumber and a fistful of hackneyed presidential entourage jokes. Mix them together in a small town mayoral race, and the result is a recipe for disaster. Coincidentally, not to mention unfortunately, this same recipe was used in the creation of the recent Fox release, "Welcome to Mooseport."
"Mooseport" develops around the drama that ensues in a tight-knit small town when former U.S. President Monroe Eagle Cole (Gene Hackman) becomes embroiled in a mayoral race against local hardware store owner Handy Harrison (Ray Romano). To complicate matters, Cole takes interest a romantic interest in Harrison's girlfriend Sally Mannis (Maura Tierney). While this would seem to provide a solid premise for comic entertainment, something went horribly wrong.
As far as the mayoral race plot is concerned, "Mooseport" won't twist and turn until a climatic finish. In fact, it won't even wiggle, so viewers who pay attention in the first five minutes will most likely know what inextricable path this story is taking.
To compound plot issues, not even Hackman and Romano can save the script which is full of trite, predictable jokes that leave one laughing, but typically at the wrong times. Cole's over-exaggerated presidential entourage, which includes campaign managers, security guards and everyone's favorite "Wonder Years" star, Fred Savage, as one of his aides, becomes an annoying burden hovering around Hackman's every appearance.
The same can be said for Harrison's so called entourage. His group of local small-town bumpkins that engineer his campaign, which apparently is nothing more than fliers and buttons, come off as painfully not funny, as they attempt to play off the over-the-hill-women-making-crude-sexual-references angle.
Director Donald Petrie focuses on creating a stark visual contrast between the lifestyles of these two polar opposite candidates. He succeeds in this aspect, especially in obvious contrast in fashion. He should have focused on letting comedic exchanges between Hackman and Romano drive the storyline. But instead of any sort of entertaining interaction, the audience is bombarded with terribly corny images of Hackman saluting and referencing everything to his character's middle name, Eagle, such as "the Eagle has landed," or "The Eagle gives his word."
Nothing at all exciting or even unexpected transpires as Petrie unravels the tale of the big shot Washington politician Cole attempting to run a mudslinging campaign against the honest, likeable local Harrison.
To add to this comedy-gone-wrong, Petrie throws in a horrible love story. Consequently, Harrison, Mannis and Cole's love triangle is underdeveloped and merely serves to take more time away from any Hackman-Romano chemistry development.
Despite countless flaws, "Mooseport" does have one extremely enjoyable scene. Cole and Harrison decide to meet for golf to decide who will win Sally over. Cole, used to the presidential pampering of "mulligans," "gimmes" and lucky bounces a la the secret service, squares off against Harrison and the two show signs of chemistry. The two bicker at one another about the number of strokes on a certain hole. Yet, the chemistry is short lived and vanishes after the scene.
On another positive note, the irresistibly cute Tierney (essentially a poor man's Jennifer Anniston) delivers a solid performance as Sally Mannis, the innocent girl caught in the terrible conundrum of dating her boyfriend Harrison -- the hardware store owner -- or Cole -- the former President.
Aside from those few bright spots, the movie seems to drag dully to its inevitable conclusion.
This is not one of Hackman's better performances. The script is dry, and despite Romano's efforts to pull off his bumbling, whiny, semi-clueless act, he can't breathe any life into it. Hopefully Romano will bounce back, if he ever gets another role.
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