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Timothy Dunphy (Shawn Hatosy, The Faculty) had been called `Ass Bag' and `Queer' before his father finally settled on the nickname `Dildo.' Dunph, as he is more commonly known, has spent his entire life in Pawtucket, Rhode Island with his blue-collar old man (Alec Baldwin, Mercury Rising), a three-legged dog named Cyclops and paraplegic kid brother Jackie (Kyle & Ryan Pepi), who was injured falling off the roof during a game of football. Their mother died when both boys were little.
Life in Pawtucket isn't too exciting for kids, and Dunph ends up spending his evenings on the town's water tower, getting high with other disenchanted neighborhood teenagers. They all use fantastic slang when talking about women, referring to their faces as `helmets,' breasts as `floaters,' and rear ends as `toilets.' And in Pawtucket, you don't get to third base with a girl – you stink-finger her.
One night, while driving without a license and having his vision impaired immense clouds of pot smoke, Dunph slams into a parked cop car. Thanks to a `connected' friend of his father, the judge's only punishment is to make Dunph enroll in Cornwall Academy, a prep school in central Connecticut. When asked what prep school would actually prepare him for, Dunph's old man grunts `to prepare you from not gettin' your neck broke by me.'
Dunph sets off for Cornwall with thirty frogpelts from his pop and a garbage bag full of personal belongings. He instantly deduces that there might be a period of adjustment when he shows up for orientation in a dingy t-shirt and blue jeans, while everybody else is outfitted in blue blazers and neckties. Soon enough, Dunph finds a counterculture of dope fiends and troublemakers, including a comely young woman named Jane Weston (Amy Smart, Varsity Blues).
Essentially a typical coming-of-age film, Providence succeeds where others asphyxiate from mediocrity, due to its production pedigree. The film is based on Peter Farrelly's novel of the same name and the book, which was really sort of boring, was adapted here by Farrelly, his brother Bobby (the guys that made There's Something About Mary) and director Michael Corrente (American Buffalo). Don't be fooled – this isn't a slapstick comedy like Mary. It's more character driven than bodily fluid driven, but still entertaining nonetheless. (1:38 - R for pervasive teen drug use and strong language including sexual references)
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