[5]

Shawn Hatosy stars in this coming-of-age dramedy written and produced by The Farrelly Brothers (There’s Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber). Hatosy plays a motherless ne’er-do-well teen whose father (Alec Baldwin) sends him to prep school after he smokes weed and crashes into a parked cop car. At Cornwall University, he gives the administration grief, falls in love with Amy Smart (who wouldn’t?), and maybe, oh, I don’t know, starts to become an adult. The dramatic moments in Outside Providence are a little too understated, and the jokes aren’t the grand ones you might expect from the Farrellys. So it’s not a great comedy and not a great drama — it’s some mediocre thing inbetween. The pervasive use of gay slurs and homophobia is interesting, though. Hatosy, Smart, and Baldwin ultimately make it worth watching. And there’s also supporting appearances by George Wendt, Richard Jenkins, and the late Jonathan Brandis.

My favorite exchange of dialogue:

“Tell me how Arizona’s not by the water.”

“That gray border down there, it’s not water, it’s Mexico.”

(pause) “Still?”