Don’t leave your carport for ‘Mooseport’

RAY BUFFER

Though Ray Romano put voice to a prehistoric elephant in “Ice Age,”

“Welcome to Mooseport” marks his live-action film debut.

I want to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone who shares my

first name, but Romano’s outing indicates that he should consider

sticking to the small screen. It’s not completely his fault. A

promising story by Doug Richardson simply doesn’t translate well in

the watered-down screenplay by “Dead Poets Society” scribe Tom

Schulman. Donald Petrie, known for films such as “Ms. Congeniality”

and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” directs this film into sickly

sweet obscurity.

Gene Hackman, who plays a popular ex-president running for mayor

of a small Maine town, seems to be the only one in the film who knows

what a lame duck it is. He coasts through the story effortlessly,

perhaps saving himself for better fare. Romano plays a plumber who

opposes him in the mayoral election.

Maura Tierney, Christine Baranski, Marcia Gay Harden, Fred Savage

and Rip Torn would all prove to be a wonderful supporting cast -- in

some other movie. In this film they serve only as a distraction from

Romano and Hackman -- the filmmaker himself appears to be more

enamored of them than of his two stars.

Next up in cinema for Romano is a wide release of the comedy flick

“Eulogy,” which till now has only been screened at the Sundance Film

Festival. One bright point is that his second live-action outing

cannot be worse than his first. Save this film as a rental for that

night when you have seen everything else on TV, including the

infomercials.

* RAY BUFFER, 34, is a professional singer, actor and voice-over

artist.