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Like the obnoxious, loud-mouthed kid in school who one day surprises everybody by saying something profound, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, creators of Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary (which next year will hatch a sequel, There’s Something More...), have out of nowhere written one of the very few films of the recent youth cycle that offers anything in the way of poignant, believable drama. Directed by art-house upstart Michael Corrente, who brought David Mamet’s play American Buffalo to film, the aptly named Outside Providence concerns Tim Dunphy (Shawn Hatosy -- In and Out, The Faculty) a hapless blue-collar Rhode Island teenager whose life as of autumn 1974 has apparently never enjoyed any kind of divine favor. His dad’s (Alex Baldwin) idea of expressing affection is to constantly refer to him as “dildo;” his younger brother lost the use of his legs after an accident “playing football on the roof;” and his mother died under circumstances that are forbidden from discussion. Even his dog has only three legs and one eye. As his senior year is about to start, Tim runs into a parked police car while driving around with his stoner friends, and as part of the plea bargain gets shipped off to prep school.
As luck would have it, there’s a prefab bunch of more affluent miscreants waiting to take him under wing upon arrival. But the bigger surprise is an attractive young scholar named Jane (Amy Smart, Varsity Blues) from the adjacent girls’ school, who finds his ingenuousness refreshing. She manages to impress upon Tim at least a marginal appreciation of the role further education can play in providing him a way out of the brown hole of New England’s rust belt. Sadly, he repays the favor by getting her to loosen up a little, and unwittingly involves her in a campus drug bust that threatens her Ivy League plans.
Though Outside Providence does portray a lot of drinking and pot-smoking, it also gives an inkling to the potential fallout: losers who may be comically lovable, but are still losers. Surprisingly, for all its crudeness there’s none of the prerequisite sex or nudity usually associated with such fare; instead we’re treated to a story of considerable dramatic impact, featuring several memorable performances (including those from several cast members who are making film debuts). Alec Baldwin is genuinely touching as a father who can only deal with his own personal tragedy by erecting a shield of flippant gruffness, ensuring his son’s continued disdain if they can’t find a way to own up to the past and put it behind them. As his resume would indicate, Corrente has crafted something like David Mamet for the Sega crowd. B
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