Mumford (1999)

Like many a good film, writer/director Lawrence Kasdan's "Mumford" suffers from a promotional trailer that just gives away much too much of the film. Surprisingly, however, it is still easy to like the film, even if it is predictable and even if it doesn't do anything particularly new or unexpected.

The plot seems pretty typical and it is. Loren Dean plays Dr. Mumford, a therapist who recently moved to a town called Mumford. The locals come to him with problems and he solves all of them, in the process solving his own. According to Kasdan, however, pretty much the chief problem in society is loneliness and longing. If we could all just hook up, everyone would be happy. I'm not saying that there's any flaw with this idea, but if Kasdan wanted to flex his imagination at all here, I'm sure he could have come up with some better problems for his characters. I guess the piece is supposed to be a meditation on loneliness and isolation, in a way, so it is in keeping with his theme that all the characters have, basically, the same problem.

And what makes "Mumford" worth viewing is it's characters. We can't help but like them. Dean, though exceedingly unhandsome, casts his charming spell upon us so that, when we discover his flaws, we forgive him easily. He is able to help so many people too. The local slutty high school girl, a distraught suburbanite housewife addicted to home shopping, a sex-starved pharmacist who dabbles in erotic fantasies, and a sufferer of the yuppie disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In all cases, the answer is simple: Fall in love with someone new. Sufferers of CFS will probably be pretty offended by this slapdash idea.

Kasdan's pat answer also works for the film's best character, a newly rich computer nerd named Skip Skiperton. Actor Jason Lee imbibes the local rich guy, whose modem company drives the town's economy, with the perfect amounts of goofiness, immaturity, charm and spunk, so that we are easily drawn into his character. Dean's Mumford finds him so likable that he opens up to him with all his secret, exposing his sordid past to Skiperton and us as a relieving sigh. Lee's wonderful character gives the film life and light and bounce. It makes it not only easy for us to believe that Mumford would feel free to open up to him but also that the local diner owner, played by Alfre Woodard, a woman older than him, and also of a different race, would fall almost immediately in love with him. He is that gracious and sweet.

The direction here is quite nice. Kasdan paces the film perfectly and allows the characters and the images to open up at their own flowering pace. His scenes where Dean's Mumford climbs the local hills to a spot where he can view the small town from above are not only beautiful to view but also accentuate his theme of Mumford's impact on the townspeople. Surely, as he is allowed to watch them, listen to them and evaluate them from his distance, he easily sees the impetus of their troubles and the solutions to their problems.

Kasdan has surely brought us much finer films. His previous 90's ensemble piece, "Grand Canyon," and his classic "The Big Chill" are two of my favorite films. Of course, he is also capable of missing the mark, as he usually does with his Western themed offerings. But while "Mumford" is weak in his lexicon of ensemble films, it still has it's charms. It is still enjoyable to view, even if we can see what's coming way down the pike.

Note: Also with Ted Danson, Jane Adams, David Paymer, Mary McDonnell, Hope Davis, Martin Short, and Priscilla Barnes. Also with Robert Stack in cameo hosting "Unsolved Mysteries."

Kasdan is a producer here as well.

Music by James Newton Howard.

Report Card

Script: C+

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: D-

Special Effects\Make Up: B

Music: A

Final Grade: B-