Years ago here in Austin I got the wonderful chance to meet Lawrence Kasdan at a special screening of GRAND CANYON and I tell ya... I was geeking something fierce. And just a bit he reminded me of Wolfman Jack, but otherwise he was just... cool. But I've been a fan of his since the beginning of his fandom, and I'm really looking forward to what sounds like a strange film. But according to this demi-god... Hercules... Ok, now how much do ya love that moniker. Doesn't it just conjure images of oil rubdowns and loincloths? My what... Muscles you have Hercules. Heheh. Well, Hercules is known to me as being a honest to goodness longtimer, but I just have to pick on his choice of name this time out. Heh. Sorry Herc... onto Mumford, which Hercules gives STRONG praise to...
MUMFORD
Written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan.
With Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell, Zooey Deschanel, Pruitt Taylor Vince, David Paymer, Jane Adams, Martin Short, Dana Ivey, Kevin Tighe, Robert Stack, Holt McCallany, Kirk Fox, Ted Danson, and Jason Morgan Ritter.
Rated R for sex-related images, language and drug content.
US:96min./UK:111 min. (a difference of 15 minutes!)
**** (out of four)
Lawrence Kasdan – the *good* Lawrence Kasdan -- has returned to us.
The romantic comedy-drama “Mumford” is easily the writer-director’s best and most entertaining work in a decade and a half. It wastes no time reminding us of the talent that sustained the brilliant screenplays he forged for “The Big Chill,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and others; the new film engrosses so thoroughly, in fact, that one almost forgets the years squandered on half-assed nonsense like “The Bodyguard,” “Wyatt Earp” and “French Kiss.”
“Mumford” represents the first time a Kasdan writing credit has appeared on screen since 1994, and one suspects the 50-year-old filmmaker has – laudably – taken the time to carefully craft the kind of work that established him as one of Hollywood’s leading storytellers 20 years ago.
As the film begins, the young and mysterious Dr. Mumford has made his home in scenic Mumford, N.H. for less than five months, but he’s already the busiest of its three psychoanalysts. It’s not hard to see why: he’s as helpful, bright, well-mannered and witty as he is unorthodox and enigmatic.
Mumford (the municipality) rivals even fellow lumber town Twin Peaks for the number of secrets it harbors. Mumford (the psychologist) gingerly extracts these secrets, but the town has yet to learn that its leading shrink has amassed a pretty impressive array of secrets all his own.
“Mumford” is a story about fresh starts, and it feels as though Kasdan has made a fresh start for himself. Neither William Hurt nor the Kevins Kline and Costner put in appearances; instead, the filmmaker has returned to recruiting his leads from the roster of the fabulous but little-known. Literally everyone in the cast – including leads Loren Dean and Hope Davis -- is terrific, but special praise should be reserved for Jason Lee (as the goofy skateboarding computer billionaire Skip Skipperton, who seems to be responsible for the entire town’s livelihood), Zooey Deschanel (as a brainy and overheated teen outsider obsessed with periodicals), and Pruitt Taylor Vince (virtually unrecognizable here as a pharmacist with a markedly overactive imagination). Equally fun in smaller roles are Martin Short (playing the villain of the piece – a vile and resentful lawyer about two chromosomes removed from Short’s SNL character Nathan Thurm), Jane Adams (as a suspicious rival psychologist), and Ted Danson (in a tiny turn as a loutish and weak-minded industrialist).
As good as the product has been this year, I can’t imagine this one not making my 1999 top ten. By turns compelling, hilarious and poignant, “Mumford” brings a lot to the couch. It’s the perfect place to lose one’s mind.
I warn you not to defy me!
I am … Hercules!
