Welcome to Mooseport

In the small town of Mooseport, Maine, former President of the United States Monroe "Eagle" Cole (Gene Hackman) prepares to retire to his summer home in the town following leaving his position as the most popular President in history despite having gone through a messy and public divorce while in office from his wife Charlotte (Christine Baranski). As Monroe fields various book and speech offers through his staff, the town of Mooseport asks Monroe to fill in for the position of Mayor after their previous one passes away. Believing the Mayoral position will be good publicity for his soon to be published memoirs he accepts, only to find that at the same time he accepted local hardware store owner and handyman, Harold "Handy" Harrison (Ray Romano) has also filled out the forms for candidacy. While Harold is initially open to withdrawing from the race, Monroe's advances towards Harold's girlfriend of six years, local vet Sally Mannis (Maura Tierney), accepts a dinner date with Monroe hoping it will spur Harold towards commitment in their relationship but turns this small town mayoral race into a clash of pride and ego.

Welcome to Mooseport began its inception as a rough outline by writer Doug Richardson, who was inspired by an offhand conversation he had with his wife regarding the possibility of then President Bill Clinton possibly running for some other office after vacating the presidency which served as the impetus for the idea of a former President running for mayor in a small town. Known primarily for action films such as Die Hard 2, Money Train and Bad Boys, Richardson saw Mooseport as an opportunity to branch out with Mooseport mining Richardson's personal experience from politics having been the son of a career politician. Due to Richardson's political background, he enlisted his friend Tom Schulman to write the screenplay while Richardson would produce and provide layouts so the film would primarily be seen as a comedy rather than overtly political. While initially setup at Disney where Schulman had an "in" with then chairman Joe Roth, a change in management resulted in Disney losing interest in the project and putting it into turnaround where it landed at Intermedia Films where it was eventually co-produced by 20th Century Fox. As Ice Age had proven a success at the box office, Fox pushed for Ray Romano to be the lead which is speculated as to why original director Rod Lurie dropped out leading to his replacement by Donald Petire. Upon release the film was a financial flop opening in fourth place with much of the potential audience for this film syphoned away with the hit Adam Sandler Drew Barrymore film 50 First Dates taking the number one spot in its second weekend. Critical reception was also quite weak with many describing the film as bland and its satire of American politics as pretty surface level. While welcome to Mooseport isn't all that great, it's not worthy of any sort of vitriol or contempt at least to the levels we saw in the wake of its release.

Gene Hackman is his usual charming self, playing the retired President Monroe Cole and while it's unfortunate that such a rather unambitious but harmless comedy was Hackman's sendoff before retirement you can tell he's not sleepwalking through the film as he carries himself with charisma and charm that comes pretty effortlessly even in lesser films like his turn in Superman IV. Ray Romano is more or less playing exactly the kind of performance and humor you expect him to play, and while not bad it is part of the reason why so many people opted not to see this movie in theaters and instead saw it on planes or on home video. When you get right down to it, Welcome to Mooseport is a theatrical sitcom. It has sitcom characters, sitcom stakes, sitcom jokes, and sitcom deliveries and despite having a decent sized budget actual sitcoms have done more with this premise on primetime TV (see The Simpsons episode Trash of the Titans for example). The movie features a lot of pretty standard comedy staples and while there's nothing all that wrong with them per se, they do make the movie feel like something that should be playing on a small screen rather than something you should pay $8 for.

Welcome to Mooseport is perfectly passable for the kind of film it is. While Hackman is still giving his all in this film, it's not a particularly substantive or inciteful film as it just goes from point A to point B making itself just okay enough that you finish it to the end without taking much away from it. I don't think this movie is all that "good" but when compared to other small town comedies like the abysmal Runaway Bride, or the awful Buck Henry penned political comedy First Family from 1980, Welcome to Mooseport is in no way shape or form deserving of the level of critical derision it received.

It lacks a satirical bite, which would have made the movie more relevant and interesting, but Welcome to Mooseport is an enjoyable comedy anyway. Ray Romano stars, and he proves himself to be quite an excellent comedian on the big screen. Of course, the role isn't that much different from his character on Everybody Loves Raymond, but it's not at all bad to go with what you know. It's worked with any number of comedians in the past, and it should work with Romano. Unfortunately, the movie tanked at the box office and was not liked much by the audiences who did see it. That really surprises me. Gene Hackman co-stars as the former President of the US, Monroe Cole. He is moving to the small Maine town of Mooseport, and some of the citizens persuade him to run for mayor. Unfortunately, others have also persuaded one of the town's upstanding citizens, the hardware store manager, Handy (Romano), to run. Handy is more than willing to drop out (he doesn't care much and doesn't doubt that the ex-President will trounce him), but when Cole unknowingly hits on Handy's girlfriend (Maura Tierney), the war is on. The film could have gone any number of ways at this point, and I expected it to become mean-spirited. But it doesn't. Cole is an egomaniac, which isn't shocking considering his life, and Handy is an extraordinarily nice guy. A little stupid, especially when it comes to his relationship, but he's the guy you'd like to have as a friend. The funniest sequence involves a golf game between the two candidates. There is one piece of this that is just a great example of montage and comic timing. The movie is sweet without getting too sappy. Yet the movie really squanders a lot of opportunities. This could have been a great political satire, and we need one right now. Its worst crime is hiring a cast that is more talented than it needs to be, thus wasting a lot of people in roles that are beneath them, and likely wasting a ton of money because of it. Marcia Gay Harden, one of the hardest working actresses in Hollywood today, and one of the best, is decent as one of the President's handlers. Rip Torn is a dirty campaign manager. Maura Tierney, so very good on the television show News Radio, doesn't have anything to do. Fred Savage, for God's sake, has most of the funniest moments outside of Romano's presence. Whatever complaints I have, I was always enjoying the movie. It's well worth seeing, and it is a must-see for fans of Romano. 7/10.

Released in 2004, "Welcome to Mooseport" stars Gene Hackman as ex-president Munroe Cole, who moves to Mooseport, Maine, after his divorce and decides to run for mayor. Ray Romano plays the "Aw shucks" plumber who also decides to run for mayor. In between them is Ray's girlfriend, played by Maura Tierney. Also on hand are Marcia Gay Harden, Fred Savage and Rip Torn as Cole's faithful entourage and Christine Baranski as his gold-digging ex-wife.

My wife and I found this to be a surprisingly good comedy/drama that spoofs presidential politics and small town-isms. Gene Hackman was 73 years old during filming and it was his final film to date. Even though the movie flopped at the box office, Hackman went out a winner because he shines in the role of ex-president. While Romano is equally effective as the ordinary guy, Gene takes the lead in a commanding performance. The movie is consistently amusing and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. The story keeps your interest and you'll find yourself caring for the characters and the outcome of the various subplots. The negative reviews are inexplicable because everything clicks here for a top-rate dramedy with a stellar cast.

My lone criticism is that they coulda done more with the women. Aside from Tierney, cuties Jessica Holmes and Reagan Pasternak are featured, but they needed more screen time.

The film runs 110 minutes and was shot in Ontario, Canada, typically towns within an hour drive of Toronto, like Port Perry.

GRADE: A-

I somehow do not get it why some don't really like this. I mean, it's meant to be a comedy. Anyone living in a small town will kind of relate to this. I may be coming from someone growing up in an urban environment, but all the excitement of someone famous coming to live in a town is always so fun and surreal.

Monroe 'Eagle' Cole (Gene Hackman) had served two successful terms as the president. All he wanted to do is to enjoy his retirement. But his arrival to his hometown of Mooseport had caused some spectacle of sorts.

The last thing on Monroe's mind is to run for Mayor but then he was being persuaded by the local authorities to be one. But then he also had an opponent and it's in the form of local resident Handy Harrison (Ray Romano).

What was meant to be a fair fight for the mayor position had led to an all-out war of sorts, given the ex-president is meeting Handy's girlfriend Sally (Maura Tierney). It was meant to be a casual meeting between Monroe and Sally about discussing about having a pet, but the media had made it into a spectacle. Also around the same time, the former first lady Charlotte Cole (Christine Baranski) had shown up in Mooseport to support Handy to be the mayor.

On the polling day, it was quite a close fight. In fact, very close. It was like no surprise who won in the end.

My knowledge of small-town politics is not that wide, but then I am aware of the humour being thrown into it.

It's meant to be a fun movie, and nothing else. I do kind of like it.

This movie as not as bad as many would have you believe (including some reviewers here and almost every critic). It's not a great movie, but it has a certain charm and sweetness. I found myself getting antsy at times, but I liked the story overall. I think the main problem is Ray Romano. For one thing, he is not a very good actor and for another, he does not have the charisma needed for movies. Tim Allen's persona, to give one example, translates much better to the big screen. The other actors are good, though, especially Gene Hackman and Maura Tierney. Tierney is very appealing. She should be in more movies. When Hackman and Tierney are on screen, the movie brightens, but when the camera focuses on Romano, the movie sags. I doubt that teens and young adults would like this movie, but if you are over thirty and like romantic comedies, I would recommend it. 6 out of 10