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Mumford

 
Movies:

Mumford

 
  • Director: Lawrence Kasdan
  • AMG Rating: starstarstar
  • Genre: Comedy Drama
  • Movie Type: Ensemble Film, Screwball Comedy
  • Themes: Doctors and Patients, Assumed Identities, Starting Over
  • Main Cast: Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell
  • Release Year: 1999
  • Country: US
  • Run Time: 118 minutes
  • MPAA Rating: R

Plot

Lawrence Kasdan wrote and directed this comedy about a young psychologist named Mumford (Loren Dean), who arrives in a small town and sets up a practice. Mumford's style is short on analytic mumbo-jumbo and long on practical advice, and he soon finds that he has a long list of satisfied clients in his new home town, including many of the city's most prominent citizens. Mumford's advice also helps love bloom among the city's single residents. However, the city already had a psychologist, Ernest Delbanco (David Paymer), who is quickly losing business to Mumford. So Ernest starts asking questions: who is this Mumford, and just what are his qualifications? Mumford's supporting cast includes Ted Danson, Martin Short, Alfre Woodard, Hope Davis, Jason Lee, and Pruitt Taylor Vince. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Review

There's one almost every year, a terrific film that deserves to be at least a minor-league hit but passes unnoticed by the audience, unloved by the critics, and undersold by the studio. Such a picture is this likable small town comedy from writer/director Lawrence Kasdan. Loren Dean is just one of the diverse, well-chosen actors here, each of whom is perfect for his or her role, the sort of cast that only a highly intelligent filmmaker would assemble, the unifying factors between them being skill and a likeable quality. A number of oddball curves are thrown by Kasdan's loopy narrative but viewers are in the hands of an accomplished storyteller here, and every plot thread pays off or comes full circle by the end. Even the wildest confabulations of the plot (the most incredible one coming courtesy of Robert Stack and the TV show Unsolved Mysteries) don't bend the mind too much out of whack here, thanks to a consistency of mood and style that is the hallmark of a reliable filmmaker. Like any artist who's been around for a while, he's had well-deserved hits and misses, but Mumford (1999) goes down as Lawrence Kasdan's most unfairly ignored effort to date. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Cast

Pruitt Taylor Vince - Henry Follett; Zooey Deschanel - Nessa Watkins; Martin Short - Lionel Dillard; David Paymer - Dr. Ernest Delbanco; Jane Adams - Dr. Phyllis Sheeler; Dana Ivey - Mrs. Crisp; Kevin Tighe - Mr. Crisp; Ted Danson - Jeremy Brockett; Jason Ritter - Martin Brockett; Elisabeth Moss - Katie Brockett; Robert Stack - himself

Credit

Steven W. Graham - Art Director, Jennifer Shull - Casting, Jon Hutman - Co-producer, Stephen P. Dunn - Co-producer, Linda Goldstein-Knowlton - Co-producer, Colleen Atwood - Costume Designer, Stephen P. Dunn - First Assistant Director, Lawrence Kasdan - Director, Carol Littleton - Editor, William Steinkamp - Editor, James Newton Howard - Composer (Music Score), Jon Hutman - Production Designer, Ericson Core - Cinematographer, Lawrence Kasdan - Producer, Charles Okun - Producer, Beth A. Rubino - Set Designer, Dawn Swiderski - Set Designer, John Pritchett - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert Grieve - Sound Editor, Lawrence Kasdan - Screenwriter

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Wikipedia: Mumford (film)
Top
Mumford
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan
Produced by Lawrence Kasdan
Charles Okun
Written by Lawrence Kasdan
Starring Loren Dean
Hope Davis
Jason Lee
Alfre Woodard
Mary McDonnell
Zooey Deschanel
Martin Short
Eddie McClintock
Music by James Newton Howard
Editing by Carol Littleton
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) September 24, 1999
Running time 112 min.
Language English
Budget $28,000,000

Mumford is a 1999 comedic feature film written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. It is set in a small town where a new psychologist (Loren Dean) gives offbeat advice to the neurotic residents. Both the psychologist and the town are named "Mumford," a coincidence that eventually figures in the plot.

The film co-stars Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell, Martin Short and Ted Danson and was the film debut of Zooey Deschanel. It also features future Dancing with the Stars alum and winner Kelly Monaco in a small (non-speaking) role.

Synopsis

As a relative newcomer to town, Dr. Mumford seems charming and skillful to his neighbors and patients. His unique, frank approach to psychotherapy soon attracts patients away from the two therapists (David Paymer and Jane Adams) already working in the area.

Soon he is treating a variety of conditions, ranging from one man's infatuation with sexy film-noir heroines to an unhappy woman's shopping fetish. Mumford befriends a billionaire computer mogul (Lee) and a cafe waitress (Woodard) and he attempts to play matchmaker. He also begins to fall for a patient (Davis) who suffers from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Together with attorney Lionel Dillard (Short) — a patient Mumford had rejected because of his arrogance — the two local therapists conspire to try to find skeletons in Mumford's closet, hoping to destroy his reputation and revive their own practice. And there are indeed skeletons galore, as a confidante of Mumford's soon finds out.

Reception

Mumford was generally considered a pleasant but forgettable film. Many critics expressed a general approval of the movie but questioned the unpleasant back-story (which contrasted with the overall tone of the film).

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Movies. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Movie Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mumford (film)" Read more

 

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