Comedic Jabs Rarely Land in Overly Cute 'Waterford' / Canadian film can't overcome the improbable
Quirkiness is a commodity in film comedies that should be doled out sparingly; perhaps the ratings board, besides evaluating material for violence and sexual explicitness, could monitor films for being excessively cutesy.
The group would certainly have their hands full with this new Canadian comedy, set in the coal mining town of New Waterford in Canada's Cape Breton, but which might as well take place in Oz. "New Waterford Girl" is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Tricia Fish's supposedly autobiographical screenplay (another syndrome that should be carefuly restricted) is set in the mid-1970s and concerns the travails of the title character, Mooney Pottie (Liane Balaban), a 15-year-old desperate to break free of her constrained existence and move to a cosmopolitan city like New York. Her dreams are encouraged by her sympathetic and highly eccentric teacher (Andrew McCarthy), who lives in a trailer perched at the edge of a cliff.
Mooney, not exactly popular with the other kids, finds companionship in the form of the toyboyish Lou (Tara Spencer-Nairn), the new girl in town, a refugee from the Bronx who has arrived with her mother (Cathy Moriarty), a Latin dance instructor and the wife of a boxer who was jailed for killing an opponent (Jake LaMotta, perhaps?). Lou has inherited her father's pugilistic abilities, but she employs her skills to odd effect; she punches out various boys in town and evaluates their morality by whether or not they hit the ground. She also suggests a solution to Mooney's problem: namely to spread the false rumor that she's pregnant, so she can be sent away from the heavily Catholic town in disgrace. Needless to say, wacky complications ensue.
The film is far too precious for its own good, and the jokes and situations are not nearly funny enough to compensate for the material's improbabilities. Still, there are moments of charm, mostly provided by Balaban's refreshingly unaffected performance in the central role.
NEW WATERFORD GIRL
Alliance-Atlantis
Credits: Director: Allan Moyle; Screenwriter-associate producer: Tricia Fish; Producers: Julia Sereny, Jennifer Kawaja; Executive producer: Christopher Zimmer; Director of photography: Derek Rogers; Production designer: Emanuel Jannasch. Cast: Mooney Pottie: Liane Balaban; Lou Benoza: Tara Spencer-Nairn; Francis Pottie: Nicholas Campbell; Cookie Pottie: Mary Walsh; Cecil Sweeney: Andrew McCarthy; Midge Benoza: Cathy Moriarty. No MPAA rating. Running time - 97 minutes. Color/stereo.
Quirkiness is a commodity in film comedies that should be doled out sparingly; perhaps the ratings board, besides evaluating material for violence and sexual explicitness, could monitor films for being excessively cutesy.
The group would certainly have their hands full with this new Canadian comedy, set in the coal mining town of New Waterford in Canada's Cape Breton, but which might as well take place in Oz. "New Waterford Girl" is receiving its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York's Film Forum.
Tricia Fish's supposedly autobiographical screenplay (another syndrome that should be carefuly restricted) is set in the mid-1970s and concerns the travails of the title character, Mooney Pottie (Liane Balaban), a 15-year-old desperate to break free of her constrained existence and move to a cosmopolitan city like New York. Her dreams are encouraged by her sympathetic and highly eccentric teacher (Andrew McCarthy), who lives in a trailer perched at the edge of a cliff.
Mooney, not exactly popular with the other kids, finds companionship in the form of the toyboyish Lou (Tara Spencer-Nairn), the new girl in town, a refugee from the Bronx who has arrived with her mother (Cathy Moriarty), a Latin dance instructor and the wife of a boxer who was jailed for killing an opponent (Jake LaMotta, perhaps?). Lou has inherited her father's pugilistic abilities, but she employs her skills to odd effect; she punches out various boys in town and evaluates their morality by whether or not they hit the ground. She also suggests a solution to Mooney's problem: namely to spread the false rumor that she's pregnant, so she can be sent away from the heavily Catholic town in disgrace. Needless to say, wacky complications ensue.
The film is far too precious for its own good, and the jokes and situations are not nearly funny enough to compensate for the material's improbabilities. Still, there are moments of charm, mostly provided by Balaban's refreshingly unaffected performance in the central role.
NEW WATERFORD GIRL
Alliance-Atlantis
Credits: Director: Allan Moyle; Screenwriter-associate producer: Tricia Fish; Producers: Julia Sereny, Jennifer Kawaja; Executive producer: Christopher Zimmer; Director of photography: Derek Rogers; Production designer: Emanuel Jannasch. Cast: Mooney Pottie: Liane Balaban; Lou Benoza: Tara Spencer-Nairn; Francis Pottie: Nicholas Campbell; Cookie Pottie: Mary Walsh; Cecil Sweeney: Andrew McCarthy; Midge Benoza: Cathy Moriarty. No MPAA rating. Running time - 97 minutes. Color/stereo.
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