Having worked on this film, I can provide a few insights. This low budget HBO made-for-cable production was shot mostly in Hastings, MN. David Morris, the director from St. Paul, made a standout comedy "Patti Rocks". It featured Chris Mulkey, also from Minnesota, an actor who has been involved in many well known films and TV shows. The star of HBMG is Anthony Edwards, who had a standout role in Top Gun, and showed his comedic talent in the Revenge of the Nerds.
The director told me he was heavily influenced by the movie Blue Velvet. So he included a lot of that small town flavour, including shots resembling the white picket fence featured in the David Lynch film. Twin Peaks followed that small town theme, so it is no surprise that Grace Zabriskie from that TV show was cast in this movie. The plot involves a college dropout that has been hiding the fact from his sweet mother. She believes that he is a successful psychiatrist. Not to disappoint her, he returns to his hometown pretending he is big time doctor.
The movie becomes more about the characters in his hometown and how they fit into his past. We see Jerry Hardin, a great character actor seen in many shows, such as "X Files", as a quirky mayor. There is his old high school sweetheart, his drinking buddies, and the town rich kid. Complications arise when Chris Mulkey, husband to Edwards' sweetheart, seeks his psychiatric help. Other members of town express their own issues that convince maybe Edwards might "make good" by setting up a fake practice in town. A real doctor in town starts to suspect things, putting the pressure on Edwards to come clean.
Mulkey is the standout here, playing a small town cop that doesn't have the smarts to figure out how to resolve his marital difficulties. The comedy moves along quickly enough, encapsulating many of the quirky qualities seen in later TV shows and movies like "Fargo" or "Northern Exposure". But the story also needs to straddle issues of suicide and rocky relationships. And it's hard to be too sympathetic with Edwards' character, being a college dropout with no intentions to change. The humour based on his deception feels like a typical comedy, so there is not much that stands out here. The premise was ultimately a little thin and the humour a little pushed.
Edwards would find greater success playing a more serious and complex character in the TV show "ER". As much fun as I had being an intern on the movie, there was not enough depth to this story to make it a standout. But it did a nice job shooting at real locations and showing how Minnesota could be a filming destination. Right after this film was made, a long run of features were shot in Minnesota.
