Summary

Welcome to Mooseport. The sleepy Maine community has all the accoutrements of idyllic small town life: a little park and gazebo, quaint architecture, a moose that wanders through the streets, and lots of friendly townsfolk, including the proprietor of the local hardware store, Handy Harrison (Ray Romano) and his veterinarian girlfriend Sally (Maura Tierney). Mooseport also just happens to be the vacation home for the leader of the free world: Monroe ?Eagle? Cole, the President of the United States (Gene Hackman). Following two successful terms, the wildly popular President is ready to retire to his ?Mooseport White House,? publish his memoirs and embark on a series of lucrative speaking engagements. ?The Eagle Has Landed!? proclaim the Mooseport headlines when Cole arrives in the Maine town, along with his devoted executive secretary Grace Sutherland (Marcia Gay Harden) and young PR director Bullard (Fred Savage). But Eagle?s retirement is delayed when the folks of Mooseport convince the former President to run for Mayor. At the same time, he sparks to Sally ? unaware that she is Handy?s girlfriend. And Sally, frustrated by Handy?s inattentiveness, doesn?t resist Eagle?s flirtations. When a jealous Handy announces HIS candidacy for mayor, Eagle is dumbfounded. ?I?m running for mayor against the man who?s installing my toilets!? he rails. And in the heat of his toughest campaign to date, Eagle?s first date with Sally receives the kind of media scrutiny usually reserved for a summit meeting. (?Eagle Lays an Egg? say the pundits when she rejects his goodnight kiss. Ouch!) Handy, in turn, sees himself in a race for Mayor and boyfriend. As the campaign kicks into high gear, things get even wilder in this once quiet town. Eagle and Handy?s closely-watched debate seems to hang on a game of Rock/Paper/Scissors, the former president?s Secret Service agents suggest that he have Handy ?eliminated,? and Eagle?s ex-wife (Christine Baranski) is campaigning for Handy. Even Eagle?s veteran campaign manager, Bert Langdon (Rip Torn), can?t make sense of this ?David and Goliath? battle. But one thing both the Handy and Eagle camps can agree on: Mooseport isn?t small enough for both of them! America?s favorite television comedy star ? Ray Romano ? and one of the most acclaimed actors in motion picture history ? Gene Hackman ? fight it out for love and small-town glory in WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT. Renowned for his many dramatic performances in films such as ?The French Connection? and ?Unforgiven,? two-time Academy Award? winner Gene Hackman has proven equally adept in comedies such as ?The Birdcage? and ?Get Shorty.? The laughs in Oscar?-winner Tom Schulman?s screenplay (based on a story by Doug Richardson) proved irresistible for the actor. ?Comedy is hard, if not harder, than dramatic roles because comedy is not arbitrary,? says Hackman. ?It?s either funny or it isn?t. ?WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT is a flat-out comedy and that appealed to me.? Hackman describes his character, President Monroe ?Eagle? Cole as ?a comedic view of what we think of as politicians. He?s self-centered, arrogant and full of himself. He?s a typical politician, or at least how we imagine a typical politician to be. We?ve seen so many shots of Presidents in the news that I think we have a generalized sense of how a statesman should act. However, this character is not very statesman-like at times, and that, of course, is a lot of the fun in playing him.? Director Donald Petrie, who helmed the comedies ?Miss Congeniality? and ?How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,? says Hackman was perfect for the role. ?You totally believe that Gene is the President of the United States,? says Petrie. ?He has the command and authority, and he can be intimidating. On the other hand, Gene has a sense of comedy that is unparalleled. He can take himself so seriously that it?s funny, and he can stretch that point of reality but still always be completely real and in the moment. There?s never a false moment, it?s never comedy for comedy?s sake. It?s the reality of the moment and that?s what he plays so wonderfully.? Eagle?s opponent isn?t a seasoned political operative ? he?s friendly hardware store owner Harold ?Handy? Harrison. The role was a natural fit for Ray Romano, so beloved for his work on ?Everybody Loves Raymond.? ?Ray was the standout first and only choice to play the role of Handy Harrision,? states Petrie. ?He?s very much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy, not unlike his character, and that?s what makes him so perfect for this role ? he?s a likable, easy-going guy and it?s very easy for people to relate to him.? Following his feature film debut as the voice of Manny in the animated box office smash ?Ice Age,? Romano was searching for a live-action follow-up. He didn?t want a carbon copy of his television alter ego, ?Ray Barone,? but he also didn?t want to stray too far from what he does best: comedy. ?I didn?t want to play Ray,? he says, ?and I didn?t want to play a psycho killer either. I was looking for a project where I could do something a little different, but at the same time, wouldn?t shock the audience ? at least, not yet. The role of Handy Harrison was a comfortable fit.? The differences between the film and television media made an impression on Romano. ?When you do a television show you?re getting an immediate response from an audience, which you?re used to when you?re doing stand-up. When you?re doing a film, that immediate response isn?t there; you?ve got to find it in different ways. Whenever our director, Donald Petrie, liked something, he rubbed his hands together. So after a take I looked to see if he was rubbing his hands. And with Gene he?s always rubbing his hands. Me, once in a while he?d rub his hands. Donald?s a tough audience.? Joining Hackman and Romano in the starring cast are Marcia Gay Harden, Maura Tierney, Christine Baranski, Fred Savage and Rip Torn. Harden, who won an Oscar for her performance as Lee Krasner in ?Pollock,? portrays Grace Sutherland, the President?s beleaguered personal secretary. Says Donald Petrie, ?For Grace, we needed an actress who could handle the comedy and be somewhat chameleon-like, because the President doesn?t always notice her. She?s supremely efficient and always has the President?s best interests in heart and mind ? because she?s in love with him ? although he?s clueless. ?Marcia Gay Harden really fit that bill. She can pull herself in and fade into the background when the role calls for it, yet come out into the light just wonderfully.? ?Grace basically runs the President?s life,? says Harden. ?She schedules everything. Any kind of picayune thing that one has to do in a day, he doesn?t have to address this at all? she does it for him so his mind can ostensibly be free to run the world. She takes care of everything quietly and efficiently and the President just takes it for granted. But what she really wants is for the President to fall in love with her.? Grace?s ?rival? for the President?s affection is Sally Mannis, Handy?s frustrated girlfriend. The filmmakers turned to ?E.R.? star Maura Tierney to play the role. ?We needed someone who was beautiful and sexy ? and tough as nails, and who would be believable as a roll-up-your-sleeves, small town vet,? says Petrie. For Tierney, the role of Sally presented a chance to portray a character completely different from her ?E.R.? role, nurse/medical student Abby Lockhart. Says Tierney, ?I play a really serious character on ?E.R.? so it was nice to lighten it up a little bit. Sally is a very down-to earth, confident woman who is frustrated in her relationship with her boyfriend, Handy. They?ve been dating for six years and she?s ready to make the relationship a little more permanent, but he likes the status quo. So when the President asks her out, her saying ?yes? is more about making her boyfriend jealous than about getting into any kind of relationship with the President.? Another woman in the President?s life is ex-wife Charlotte, whom he calls ?The Wicked Witch of the West Wing.? ?Charlotte?s a great deal of fun to play,? says Baranski. ?She?s a witty and sophisticated woman with a twinkle in her eye and a great sense of humor ? she?s had to develop a great sense of humor being married to that man.? Another acting veteran, Rip Torn, takes on the key role of Bert Langdon ? the President?s long-time campaign manager, Washington insider and self-described ?total political animal.? Working on WELCOME TO MOOSEPORT gave Torn the chance to reunite with old friends. ?Gene Hackman and I worked together about 20 years ago, in a film called ?Misunderstood,?? recalls Torn. ?And I had the great honor of casting him in his first professional role when I was the producer of an Off-Broadway show and he came in and did a scene. I always remember him mowing the grass, and there was no grass, but he was so real I turned around and said to my co-producer, ?We gotta get that guy." Another member of the President?s team is Bullard, an ambitious press attach?played by Fred Savage, best known for his starring role in the television series ?The Wonder Years.? The role of Bullard, originally conceived as an older, jaded and slick operative, was rewritten following Savage?s audition. ?Fred?s got a kind of na? eagerness that really works for his character and provides a wonderful counterpoint to Gene Hackman,? says Petrie.