(out of ****)
_Outside_Providence_ (R) **
_West_Beirut_ ***
Ever hear ssomeone tell supposedly amusing tales of their childhood and adolescence that seem only to hold the slightest bit of interest to the person telling the story? That's the sense I felt while watching _Outside_Providence_, based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Peter Farrelly. Yes, that's Peter as in Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the warped minds behind the likes of _Kingpin_ and _There's_Something_About_Mary_. But anyone looking for their brand of grossout humor will be disappointed by the wistful _Providence_, scripted by the brothers and director Michael Corrente. Then again, anything looking for humor, period, will be disappointed, for the film is strangely devoid of laughs.
_Providence_ is set in 1974, when teen Tim Dunphy's (Shawn Hatosy) aimless, pot-fueled antics leads his father (Alec Baldwin) to ship him from their home of Pawtucket, New Jersey, to Cornwall Academy, a stuffy prep school in Connecticut. A fish-out-of-water scenario where all manner of hilarity should ensue, but what unfolds is bizarrely lifeless and often simply boring, with Tim regularly running afoul of an uptight headmaster (Tim Crowe) when not running after Jane (Amy Smart), a fetching student at the girls' school. Every so often Corrente cuts to a scene back in Pawtucket, usually with Old Man Dunphy playing poker with pals. It's as exciting as it sounds.
The actors playing the only two recognizable characters are the only thing that holds interest in the film, aside from Corrente's keen eye for period detail. Baldwin does an admirable job of disappearing into his character, obviously wearing a few (to say the least) more pounds than usual and speaking in a very convincing Jersey accent. But there's more to his performance than a mere physical transformation; Baldwin infuses the macho blowhard with a palpable warmth. Not as showy is the work of Hatosy, who has a natural, understated ease about him that makes slacker Tim more likable than he otherwise would be (as played by another actor, he probably wouldn't be at all).
A more compelling semi-autobiographical tale of adolescence can be found in _West_Beirut_, written and directed by Ziad Doueiri. The film indeed is set in Lebanon in the late '70s to early '80s, when civil war divided the country and split the city of Beirut into a Christian-run East and a Muslim-run West; against this backdrop, we see the development of young Tarek (Rami Doueiri), Omar (Mohamad Chamas), and their Christian friend May (Rola Al Amin), as well as the effects the unrest has on Tarek's parents (Carmen Lebbos and Joseph Bou Nassar). Despite more than a few serious turns of events, there are plenty of moments of humor as the teens simply go about their business of having fun, learning about life, and growing up as any others would in any corner of the globe. Paying no mind to the setting and situational differences, _West_Beirut_ is more effective a film semi-memoir than _Outside_Providence_ for one simple reason--it actually feels like a story worth telling.
Michael Dequina twotrey@juno.com | michael_jordan@geocities.com | jordan_host@sportsmail.com | mrbrown@iname.com Mr. Brown's Movie Site: http://welcome.to/mrbrown CompuServe Hollywood Hotline: http://www.HollywoodHotline.com on ICQ: #25289934 | on AOL Instant Messenger: MrBrown23
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