Absolutely Fantastic

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The acting in this movie is really good.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Monroe 'Eagle' Cole (Gene Hackman) is a popular ex-President in a nasty divorce with ex-wife Charlotte (Christine Baranski). He is moving into his summer home in Mooseport, Maine with his assistants Grace Sutherland (Marcia Gay Harden) and Bullard (Fred Savage). Handy Harrison (Ray Romano) is the amiable local hardware store owner and handyman. Sally Mannis (Maura Tierney) is his 6-year girlfriend tired of waiting for him. She catches the eye of the Eagle. The mayor dies suddenly and the town begs the ex-President to run. He runs for mayor but so does Handy. Word gets out in the press and he can't quit. Handy agrees to bow out until Sally accepts a date with the Eagle. Campaign manager Bert Langdon (Rip Torn) arrives and let the campaigning begins.This is a light comedy without many big laughs. Romano is perfectly nice and Hackman is fine. They don't have the needed wackiness to make this hilarious. It has its charm-like qualities but it is unwilling to push harder. This has the possibilities of a funnier movie.

It was a flat, generic type comedy, and frankly Ray Ramono isn't up to par as a movie star, small and big screen presence just isn't the same, however Gene Hackman could play this same role a million times, its a natural fit for him. But that aside, if you take this for what it was meant to be and don't over analyze a slight romantic comedy, its was fine enough. People's expectations are way over the top at times, stop comparing this to your top ten movies of all time, its was generally entertaining with some nice moments.Its worth a re-watch.

Before I watched the movie, I was not sure I wanted to watch a match-up between titan actor Gene Hackman and receeding standup comedian Ray Romano. I was wrong. Romano's un-pretentiosness was perfect for this part. It was Hackman who was unable to sedate himself enough to interface comfortably with small-town life. I'm sure that some of this incongruity is the result of the script and direction written for him, but the bluster was carried a bit far in the movie. This is not a bad movie. It is a rather good one. It turned out the opposite of what I expected, as I've already said. I appreciate the message imparted by Welcome to Mooseport: Honesty, consistency, humility and hard work are traits that are truly valued and valuable.., especially if your girlfriend is tougher than you.

There isn't a bad Gene Hackman movie filmed and this one was great. All of the acting was great and I think Ray Ramano was great also. I've never watched his sitcom but I might now. I don't remember the actress's name who played the wife but she always makes such a good snob. I thought the "panty" scene was hilarious. It was pretty obvious early in the movie that his female aid was in love with him. I must have missed something at the beginning because I don't know why he disliked the male aid that he would have get out of his eye sight. I'm going to have to plagiarize and use that one when my boss gets on my nerves. That is quite often. Anyway, I'm betting no one could name one movie that Gene Hackman has ever been in that wasn't good even if the actors around him were lousy. He can pull of drama, humor or thriller; you name it, Gene Hackman can do it. that is my story and I'm sticking to it.