For a movie to work you have to be able to buy into the plot. There's always a certain amount of suspension of disbelief involved in watching any movie, no matter how realistic it tries to be, but so long as you are able to comfortably accept the situation presented to you onscreen then the movie has a chance. In the case of Welcome to Mooseport the filmmakers are asking for too much acceptance. The setup is too ridiculous and outrageous without being absurd enough to make up for it. Even the humor, what there is of it, is too tame and sitcom-like to enable you to truly enjoy this movie.
Its premise involves the President of the United States (Gene Hackman) moving to the small town of Mooseport, Maine immediately after leaving office. We are told repeatedly that he was one of the most popular Presidents in recent history with an approval rating of 85%. We are also told that he is inundated with offers to do lecture tours, write his memoirs, sit on corporate boards, and even do commercials in Norway. Instead, and this is the pill that is too hard to swallow, he decides to run for Mayor of Mooseport.
Of course the filmmakers attempt to give a reason for this decision, but it is so transparently thin as to be insulting to the viewer. On his first night in town, at a "Welcome to Town" party, the former President is offered the position of Town Mayor following the untimely demise of the last one. Naturally he refuses, acknowledging that it would be beneath him, but when a local woman (Maura Tierney) tells him that he should run, the President, smitten by her, agrees to take the job. I find it a little worrying that a man, who once had his finger on 'The Button', could be swayed so easily.
The plot is then thickened when it turns out that local plumber Handy Harrison (Ray Romano) has also decided to run for Mayor. And things are even further complicated when it turns out that the local woman the President is attracted to, is Handy's girlfriend. Mild humor ensues.
Since this is small-town America seen through the Hollywood lens, as you might expect, Mooseport is full of hicks and eccentrics, full of goodness and old-fashioned common sense, where everyone is accepted, even the old man who likes to jog naked through town every morning. Apparently every screenwriter in Hollywood is living under the misapprehension that if you don't live in L.A. or New York, then you must be living in Mayberry with Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bea.
If there are laughs to be had and any enjoyment to be found in this movie it is only due to its likable cast. Romano gets a few chuckles with the same style of humor that's served him in his TV show and Hackman is suitably presidential. Some of the best laughs come from the supporting characters like Christine Baranski as the President's ex-wife. The jokes overall though, are just too tame and too few.
Maybe if you were able to accept that an ex-President would run for Mayor of a small town under the circumstances presented in the plot, then you'll be able to enjoy this movie. If not, then like me, you'll find that Mooseport wears out its welcome very quickly.
