Outside Providence

Wonderfully crafted and understated movie from the kings of gross-out comedy. Poignant and hilarious this film is a beautiful departure from the Farrely Bro's typical fare. It follows the (mis) adventures of a 1970's era RI kid who runs afoul of the law and is sent to a stuffy boarding school. It sounds like a fairly redundant storyline but the emotional underpinnings and underlying angst of the young characters are subtly, yet powerfully displayed. 9/10.

Outside Providence seems like just another low budget, goofy high school comedy from the preview, but it is really a good movie. Timothy Dunphy is the lovable high school screw-up whose father sends him off to boarding school after he is involved in an accident with a parked police cruiser while smoking pot with his loser buddies. He develops an unlikely romantic relationship with the stunningly beautiful Jane Weston (Amy Smart) at the repressive school while fighting off the disciplinary excesses of the school faculty. This seems like the premise of the kind of ridiculous high school comedies that characterized the 80s (Screwballs, Ski School, etc.), but Outside Providence works well because it has heart.

Timothy Dunphy is sent off unwillingly to this hellish school, and it turns out to be a really eye-opening experience for him. He develops a lot of insight about himself, his friends, his romantic endeavors, and his family. The story is not exactly something that is entirely original, but the presentation of the film and the acting are extremely good, and the end result is a great comedy. Alec Baldwin delivers a hilarious performance as the emotionally closed-off father, regularly referring to his own son as "dildo." He steals every scene he is in, and he should be particularly noted for his ability to give such a convincing portrayal of an emotionless, macho father and still be convincing in the emotionally tense scene between him and Timothy where he describes Tim's late mother. That scene in particular is unexpectedly intense.

Outside Providence is a good comedy. It does not resort to tasteless sexual fourth-grade humor to pull it along (which is one of the biggest problems with teen comedies lately - American Pie, Scary Movie (there was no hope for that one from the beginning), There's Something About Mary, and Road Trip, which should have been a great movie). Instead, Outside Providence focuses on character development and a good story, and tops it all off with a healthy amount of comedy in the form of the cast, the characters, the script, dialogue, and pretty much everything else. Probably one of the best elements of this movie is that it is not a relentless comedy. It doesn't grab desperately for a laugh every second of the way, but instead it rounds out the content with drama, romance, skillful comedy, as well as good writing, directing, and acting. Outside Providence is badly underrated and should not be missed.

It turned out that there was a lot more to this movie than I was anticipating when I decided to watch it. I watched it largely on the basis of Alec Baldwin, who's a pretty good actor. But at the same time I knew that the basic plot revolved around a kid from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, who gets sent to a snooty prep school after getting in some trouble at home. I figured this would turn out to be a pretty typical teen-style comedy, with the "bad kid" heading off to the "good school" and turning it upside down, with the movie becoming little more than sex and drugs. It's true that there's a lot of weed in this, but much to my surprise there's no sex and not even a hint of nudity. It actually turns out to be a fairly complex study of relationships and commitment and the importance of taking responsibility for your actions.

Shawn Hatosy was Tim Dunphy - the kid who gets sent off to this school. We find out early on that he has a troubled home life, loyally devoted to his wheelchair bound little brother Jackie (Tommy Bone) but with a distant relationship with his father, who's played by Baldwin, and who seems to have time to do little else but play poker with his buddies. (As an aside, dad's "buddies" are played by a pretty decent cast of actors, including George Wendt and Richard Jenkins.) For much of the movie we know nothing about Tim's mother, except that she isn't there. When her absence finally gets explained, it resolves some of the issues about what's going on between Tim and his dad, and perhaps explains his dad's emotional emptiness.

The prep school part of the story is also more interesting than expected at first glance. There's some "teen cliché" stuff going on, but really less than I expected. Yes, as I noted, there's a lot of weed smoked over the course of an hour and a half, and there's the requisite "evil" adult character, in this case represented by My. Funderburk, played by Timothy Crowe, but even Funderburke (while a bit ridiculous at times) is less over the top than most similar characters in teen movies. As I said, there's neither sex nor nudity in this, but there is a surprisingly well portrayed romance between Tim and Jane (played by Amy Smart) - a girl from the right side of the tracks. It's one of those unlikely and somewhat unbelievable romances that nevertheless worked in this case, and I thought that Hatosy and Smart were good together. Ultimately, of course, what hijinks there were at the school leads to problems, and Tim has to decide whether to take responsibility for his actions or not, and the revelation of why Tim's mother is absent even leads ultimately to a sort of warming in the relationship between Tim and his dad.

This actually turns out to be a much more interesting movie than one might anticipate. In fact, although it's set in a prep school and is at times humorous, I wouldn't really call this a teen comedy at all. It's got too much going on for that; it raises too many issues to be dismissed as just that. It's surprisingly well done. (7/10)

Alec Baldwin has finally made another good movie with this little gem. Alec's great as grumpy Old Man Dunphy and this is good, but not great, story about his son's coming of age at an expensive prep school.

If you like flicks like this with great 1970's soundtracks, see Outside Providence. You'll definitely dig it.

Finally....we get to see a Mike Corrente film where he actually moves the camera! Unlike Federal Hill and American Buffalo, Outside Providence has a number of dolly and pan shots instead of keeping the camera still for 90 plus minutes. The film also had three montage sequences that made the film move faster. The sound track of the film alone makes the movie worth watching.

Any viewer from New England will be amazed to see Foxboro Stadium in the film. I think its safe to say that Outside Providence is the first and only film to shoot a scene at the not so famous stadium where the Patriots play.

Overall, This was a great film ! Shawn Hatosy hit the Rhode Island accent like it was his second nature. A new comer to the screen, a lot of us will remember Shawn from the hit comedy In and Out.

Like Alec Baldwin, Shawn Hatosy gave a realistic and heart filled performance. Outside Providence is a winner!