Welcome to Mooseport

Monroe Cole, a two-term US president, leaves the White House and settles in Mooseport, the small Maine coastal town where he owns a summer house, intending to write his memoirs in peace. Local residents, flattered by his presence, urge him to run for mayor, and he agrees, expecting an easy win. His opponent turns out to be Handy Harrison, a local tradesman who is far more rooted in the community than the former president, and what begins as a courteous contest turns into a bruising personal fight, in which Cole's romance with the town veterinarian complicates matters further.

The comedy was directed by Donald Petrie, working from a screenplay by Tom Schulman; it followed Petrie's How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and marked the ninth of the twelve features he has directed to date, arriving between that 2003 hit and 2006's Just My Luck. Gene Hackman plays Cole, with Ray Romano as his rival, and Marcia Gay Harden, Maura Tierney, Christine Baranski and Fred Savage in supporting roles, among a credited cast of 56.

Made for about 30 million US dollars, the film returned roughly half that amount worldwide, a clear shortfall for a studio comedy. Audiences have been lukewarm on it since: on IMDb it holds 5.3 out of 10 from around 14,000 votes, and on TMDB 5.1 out of 10 from far fewer, so viewer opinion sits firmly in the middle ground.