Cast
Mumford (Loren Dean)
Sofie Crisp (Hope Davis)
Skip Skipperton (Jason Lee)
Lily (Alfre Woodard)
Lionel Dillard (Martin Short)
Althea Brockett (Mary McDonnell)
Jeremy Brockett (Ted Danson)
Directed and Written by Lawrence Kasdan
Rated R for sex-related images, nudity, language, and drug content
Running Time: 111 minutes Distributed by Touchstone

Mumford is an ordinary well made small town movie. The little town of Mumford has a new effective and young local psychologist. Ironically, his name is Dr. Mumford (Dean). After only a few months, Dr. Mumford has more patients than the other two cross-town therapists. His therapy is totally different than any type of psychological approach; one aspect is that he listens mostly. Dr. Mumford then begins to treat a new patient, Sofie Crisp (Davis), who he immediately begins to fall for. As Mumford's patients begin to tell him more and more of there secret, we learn that Dr. Mumford has a big secret of his own.

Mumford is a film that is very well thought out and also made well. I just found it to be a very plain and average movie. The approach towards a film like this is very simple, but this movie just didn't do much for me.

The acting in Mumford is bare and constant. The film has a great cast and a nice ensemble was achieved. Loren Dean shows his capability of holding a leading role as Dr. Mumford. Dean's previous credits include Billy Bathgate, Rosewood, and Gattaca. Dean is a good actor, but he has done much since his first movie, Billy Bathgate flopped. After giving this nice performance in Mumford, maybe he will begin to deliver more work. Jason Lee is very gentle in his role as Dr. Mumford's best friend. This performance by Lee shows that he is a vulnerable actor. He doesn't just have to play the foul-mouth and angry character that we always see him as in his previous films. Don't get me wrong, I love his previous characters and his portrayal of those characters, but I also like seeing him doing different things. Hope Davis delivers a very clear and curious performance as the isolated patient that Dr. Mumford begins to fall in love with. In addition to these performances, the whole cast of Mumford is very good.

Mumford was written and directed by film veteran Lawrence Kasdan. Kasdan's previous credits include Silverado, Wyatt Earp, and The Big Chill. I also found out that Kasdan is from a small town, so he probably brought in a lot of his own experiences into his script. The script and direction is fine, but I just found the plot as being mediocre. The script is filled with colorful characters, but some of their actions and the way the story moved just didn't click for me.

Like I said before, everything in Mumford is pretty well done, but I honestly just drifted away from this movie. It is something original and different from Lawrence Kasdan. I believe that a lot of people will enjoy this movie, I guess that I am just not that big on small town communicational movies.

Report Card Grade: C

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