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| Directed by Michael Corrente; Starring Shawn Hatosy, Amy Smart, Gabrielle Mann, Alec Baldwin, Jon Abrahams, Tommy Bone, Jonathan Brandis, Jack Fever, Adam Lavorgna, Jesse Leach, Kristen Shorten, Alex Toma, and George Wendt |
Almost exactly one year ago I was singing the praises of a certain comedy that I had the luck of seeing at a preview screening two weeks ahead of time. There’s Something About Mary was an extra treat to me because I saw it without any jokes ruined by television commercials that showed the scenes that I laughed hardest at. In recommending the film to virtually everybody, I had the chance to reintroduce myself to the Farrelly Brothers. Their script as well as their direction of the film was just as important to the hilarity of the film as W. Earl Brown, but I had never really been that enthralled by their previous works. Dumb and Dumber was funny in my opinion (I guess it counts as a guilty pleasure), and their Kingpin was the funniest film of its year, but neither really jumped off the screen like Mary. I went back and rewatched those two films and found subtle things that made me rethink their combined worth. The two brothers were the comedic equivalent of the Wachowski Brothers (all four of those stated are also very good at doing commentaries for their films on various venues).
Still that did not cause me to have high expectations about Outside Providence. It is merely written and produced by the duo, with American Buffalo’s Michael Corrente directing. The film has none of the charm of Mary and is not near as funny. Its story of a down on his luck fellow being sent to preparatory school and falling in love is about as cock-eyed and boring as an A&E dramatization of There’s Something About Mary. I would actually come near saying that I all together hated the film. I cannot think of one time that I actually laughed at anything in the film that was meant as a joke.
The visual style of Corrente does not bode well with the story and the film seems unsettled and off-target throughout. I actual do believe that Corrente might be able to do a drama, but this was not his best choice for comedy (of course I will admit that he is the only director that could make David Mamet prose seem boring). None of the cast works and the story and direction seem just as uninterested as I was. I do hate to say this, but if there has to be a kink in the Farrelly films, let this be the only one. Of course one must remember that the Wachowski Brothers only faltered once, and it too was when they merely wrote the film and did not direct (the film was the Stallone/Bandaras vehicle Assassins).
