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His Dad refers to him only as Dildo, but Timothy is really a sensitive young pothead. After lighting up with his friends in a few familiar scenes, he smashes into a parked cop car. His Dad (Alec Baldwin) ships him off to a prep school. That's it. The rest of the movie is a series of barely-related and rather familiar coming-of-age scenes. That this movie was written by the guys who did There's Something About Mary and Kingpin is simply bizarre, as the comedy isn't effective and the dramatic scenes are just tortourus. The fault also lies in the truly slipshod direction of Michael Corrente. His movie veers wildly from pot-humor to forced melodrama to romance, with some silly teen-sex comedy scenes thrown in. There are also a few 'dramatic' surprises that come up from left field, which damage the already slim credibility of the story. It's way too much baggage for such a lightweight presentation.

While all of Tim's friends from home are aimless potheads, his friends at his new prep school are all aimless potheads with homework. Wow. There's really nothing interesting offered here, as Tim is quickly accepted at school, makes friends with a varied group of guys, and even hooks up with the cutest girl on campus. (Which was lucky for him, because she's the [/]only[i/] female under 50 in the whole movie!) What follows is an uninteresting collection of tired old cliches.

1. The mean and vindictive headmaster who joyously tortures our heroes.

2. The boy from the sticks tries fitting in with the rich kids.

3. Father/son angst over long-dead mother.

4. Crippled little brother. (Oddly, Tim mentions early on how he wants his wheelchair-bound brother to be treated like a 'normal kid'. WHY then is the character of the little brother subjected to such juvenille and nasty wheelchair gags?)

5. Hometown friend suddenly DIES (?!) This is about where I gave up.

6. Standing up to authority and being noble. Please.

Basically, the main fault with this movie is that it's all subplot and no plot. Stories involving Tim's Dad, home friends, school friends, girlfriend, little brother, etc. all amount to nothing. Outside Providence feels like a bunch of short movies with the same characters rather than a complete story in itself.

One small mention on Alec Baldwin's performance: He's gotten a lot of undue praise for his work here. Just because someone plays the only colorful character in a DULL movie, that doesn't make him Pacino. I found his stereotyped portrayal of Tim's Pop was so horribly BAD that it was amusing. (He apparently studied at the "Deese...Doze" school of accents.)

Outside Providence strives to cover so much ground, that ultimately it ends up just standing still. The schizophrenic and nasty screenplay is mainly to blame. At least it has consistency: It fails at drama and comedy equally.

link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=127&reviewer=128
originally posted: 03/18/00 08:42:17
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