This briskly-paced dry comedy portrays the daily
trials and tribulations of a film crew as they field
obstacle after obstacle in Smalltown, America. The
most blaring predicament - how to write the old mill
out of a script entitled "The Old Mill?"
"Why did we have to leave New Hampshire?" the
bumbling writer asks the producer who is never at a
loss for a quick fix answer or "associate producer"
credit with which to patronize a discouraged
contributor.
There's the actress refusing to expose herself
after recently finding God, the writer who can't
create without a manual typewriter, the male lead
actor with a fetish for underage girls and the local
townsfolk spinning a love story or two into the
mix.
Cute, cozy and wryly funny; the film, feeling of
"Northern Exposure" is slightly too TV. This is a
small drawback, especially in the face of a thumping
bustling pace that the filmmakers maintain from
beginning to end. The only other shortcoming (and
again a small one) lies in the casting. Populated by
many interesting characters, the writer eventually
becomes the focal person. Though, Philip Seymour
Hoffman, performs fine, he simply doesn't elicit the
compassion of the audience. Other actors who may have
been better suited for the role include: Will Smith,
Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson.
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