MUMFORD
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: Pleasant and amiable is Lawrence
Kasdan's style in this story of two Mumfords. One
is a small town of that name; one is the name of
the town's successful but unorthodox psychologist.
This film does a once-over lightly on the town and
on the nature of psychological help. Rating: 6 (0
to 10), high +1 (-4 to +4)
Films like PLEASANTVILLE have questioned time-honored American small town values. But traditionally American films have given us idealized representations of American small town life. Generally in American films small towns are where good people live and work. Films like SHADOW OF A DOUBT have intentionally shown small town life as really being the American ideal. Hitchcock intentionally played up the theme in SHADOW OF A DOUBT to show wartime audiences that small town life was what Americans were fighting for. Films like DOC HOLLYWOOD press the idea that if you get to know the American small town you are bound to like it and the people in it. MUMFORD is a similar film extolling the virtues of the small town life. DOC HOLLYWOOD was about the outsider trying to leave the small town but falling in love with the town instead. MUMFORD is a variation in which the outsider already loves the town and really wants to stay in the small town in spite of forces to make him leave.
MUMFORD opens with a sequence that looks like it was from some luscious, steamy 1940s James M. Cain film adaptation. Are we in the right movie? Yes. We are in the fantasy life of the Mumford town pharmacist. The strong, handsome young man of the fantasy turns out to be plump, balding and nearly blind in real life. He is on the couch talking to bland, handsome psychologist Dr. Mumford (played by Lorn Dean). Doc Mumford is disarmingly pleasant and affable.
Through most of the first third of the film we get to know the unorthodox doctor and about six of his cases. We watch how he goes about treating them. Among them are Althea Brockett (Mary McDonnell) who lives in luxury but is becoming a compulsive buyer. Young Skip Skipperton (Jason Lee) skateboards through traffic and runs the most successful modem company in the world. Emotionally he is still a child just looking for a buddy with whom to talk and play catch. Then there is Sofie Crisp (Hope Davis) an attractive divorcee who is living with her parents and developing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Mumford's treatment in each case seems to be in equal parts pleasant conversation and intuitive pop psychology. Sooner or later he seems to get each of his patients up to a nice place in the hills he knows of that has an impressive overlook of the town. Kasdan's approach to getting to the story is as unhurried and even as pleasant as life in the American small town of the title.
Ernest Delbanco (David Paymer) and Phyllis Sheeler (Jane Adams), a psychiatrist and a psychologist, do not mind that the newcomer is more successful than they are, but have some reservations about his style. But we too start to notice something a little off in the psychologist's style. In shooting the breeze with his patients Mumford may indiscreetly talk about his other cases. Often his comments to his patients are a little more direct and frank than we might expect. He bones up on the Internet for some surprisingly basic psychological information. He also takes an immediate dislike to town lawyer Lionel Dillard (Martin Short). It may well be that Doc Mumford may have some problems of his own, psychological and otherwise.
In telling his story, Kasdan uses some unorthodox approaches. The primary story line is delayed well into the film and then only half- heartedly visited now and again. What drives the film is not the pace of the plot. Instead, one wants to see each of the cases Dr. Mumford is treating and how a simple intuitive approach works to solve problems. Nor is the cast a particularly high-powered one. Loren Dean, who played the title role in BILLY BATHGATE and was an investigator in GATTACA, is likeable and inoffensive, but he borders on being insipid and never generates much dramatic tension. Alfre Woodard is under-used as a friend and neighbor of Doc Mumford. Woodard previously shared with Mary McDonnell the films BLUE CHIPS, PASSION FISH, and GRAND CANYON. Martin Short is slightly abrasive as the town lawyer. Jason Lee as town entrepreneur may be familiar as the clueless Banky from CHASING AMY.
This will not be one of Kasdan's more memorable scripts, but it is certainly a pleasant way to spend an hour or two. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1999 Mark R. Leeper
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