Outside Providence (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Outside Providence
Directed by	Michael Corrente
Produced by	Michael Corrente Bobby Farrelly Peter Farrelly Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein
Written by	Peter Farrelly Michael Corrente Bobby Farrelly
Starring	Shawn Hatosy Amy Smart Alec Baldwin
Distributed by	Miramax Films
Release date(s)	September 1, 1999 (wide release)
Running time	96 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000
IMDb profile

Outside Providence is a 1999 film adaptation of Peter Farrelly's 1988 novel of the same name.

Like the book, the film is a fictionalized account of Farrelly's own experiences at Kent School, a prep school in Kent, Connecticut.

[edit] Trivia

The prep school scenes were filmed at the University of Rhode Island
A special premiere was held in Warwick, Rhode Island a few weeks before the film's release date.
Jesse Leach, who played Decenz, was the vocalist for the band Killswitch Engage at the time. He is the nephew of director Michael Corrente.

[edit] Plot

Timothy Dunphy (Shawn Hatosy) has it all, or so it seems. A one-legged dog called Clopsie, a loudmouthed widowed father (Alec Baldwin) who calls him "Dildo", and a wheelchair-bound kid brother Jackie. He also has an odd group of friends with whom he regularly gets stoned: Drugs, Mousy, Tommy the Wire, and Decenz, most of whom aspire to leave their neighborhood in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and search for something better. A sudden car accident with a police car, however, sends Dunphy off to a snooty preparatory school in his senior year, as part of his sentence for drug possession. Though he tries to stay out of trouble, it somehow manages to find him, though he does manage to befriend a few of his classmates in the process.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Timothy Dunphy, or Dunph to his friends and "Dildo" to his dad, is a high school senior living in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He also hangs out with a group of friends, mainly to smoke pot up at the water tower overlooking town. His friend Drugs Delaney (Jon Abrahams) makes a suggestion of going out to a local bar called "The Edge" where a sexual permiscuous classmate known as Bunny Cote is known to frequent.

Accepting the idea, Dunph and his friends head back to his house to pick up his bong. Dunph tries to get Jackie to smuggle it out of the house, but they're slowed down by Dunph's dad Pat, who insists that they all come inside and say hi to his poker-playing buddies. While they're exchanging pleasantries, Jackie shows up with the bong wrapped in Dunph's jacket. The bong falls on the floor, and Pat picks it up inquiring what it is. Jackie tries to fool him by saying it's a horn..."a music horn". Pat's friend Joey (George Wendt) asks Dunph to demonstrate his playing abilities. Dunph tries, but blows air, and Pat, having heard enough, lets them leave. Pat's friends all know what the device is, but still don't rat out Dunph and his buddies.

Following a night out at a neighborhood bar, Dunph and his friends pile into a car (with him at the wheel) and drive off, with a big cloud of marijuana smoke fogging up the passenger compartment. Unable to see where he's going, Dunph rear-ends the back of a marked police car, with its occupant inside.

The incident gets Dunph shipped off to Cornwall Academy, a Connecticut boys boarding school with a segregated all-girls school nearby under the same name. As a condition of parole, Dunph must finish his senior year and graduate from Cornwall, or spend a year in jail.

Though Dunph makes a sincere effort to stay out of trouble, it quickly catches up with him. The first incident is when Jack Wheeler (Gabriel Mann), a preppy blond student who comes from an obviously priveleged life, introduces Dunph to Billy Fu, a middle eastern exchange student with "the best reefer on campus". The trio fashions a bong out of a 55-gallon drum hidden in a large bush, and smokes about half a baggie of weed. Dunph later learns that Billy Fu routinely cuts classes and gets away with it, because his father promises to donate a large amount of money to the school, under the condition that Billy graduates. The school will then receive the promised money after Billy gets his diploma.

It doesn't take long for Dunphy to incur the wrath of Mr. Funderburk, his dorm master; and Dean Bill Mort, who receives a letter simply addressed to the school, but meant for Dunph's eyes. The letter is from Drugs Delaney, revealing Dunph's hatred of the school and of Funderburk, who routinely assigns "work hours" to students who fall out of line. Eventually Dunph accumulates more work hours than he has class days.

Dunph also manages to make friends with Jane Weston (Amy Smart), whom Wheeler calls "hands down, the hottest girl in school". The pair eventually develops their relationship from friendship to romance, but the relationship is brought to a screeching halt one day. This is the second part of an earlier incident when Dunph's room, shared by a kid named Irving (nicknamed Jizz by his classmates due to a masterbation-related prank), is raided by Funderburk. Wheeler's room is also raided.

The incident bringing Dunph's and Jane's relationship to a stop is when Dunph, Jane, Billy Fu, Jizz, and Wheeler are in Dunph's room smoking pot with a bottle of booze present. Wheeler excuses himself to make a phone call. Moments later, Funderburk bursts into the room, catching everyone in the act of getting high and drunk. Funderburk orders Jane out of the room just as Wheeler shows up, innocently saying he was checking to see if anyone was studying. Funderburk orders him out as well. In the midst of a morality lecture on how he intends to turn everyone in as an incentive for them not to repeat such an incident in the future, Dunph stops Funderburk in mid-sentence, telling him to shut up. Funderburk calls Dunph out. Dunph reveals his knowledge about the deal with Billy Fu's father, and if Funderburk rats out everyone but Billy, Dunph will in turn, rat Billy out. Funderburk counters with producing the grass he confiscated in the earlier raid. Dunph offers Funderburk a deal, he'll let himself get expelled if everyone else gets work hours. Funderburk accepts the deal.

When the boys are all called to the Dean's office, they're all surprised to learn that all they got was probation and work hours. Dunph eventually puts everything together and learns why: Funderburk gave him an even worse deal that what they had worked out...he had Jane expelled from the school. Funderburk's actions also reversed her acceptance to Brown University the following year.

Not long after this happens, Dunph learns that Wheeler is accepted into Yale University...by a letter of recommendation from Funderburk. Knowing that Wheeler was nailed with pot during the first raid, Dunph concludes that Wheeler cut a deal with Funderburk to rat everyone out and get Jane expelled. Wheeler denies it, and Dunph threatens to throw Wheeler off the roof, where they're smoking weed one evening and is where Dunph reveals his knowledge of the situation.

Dunph later makes his way into the Dean's office at Brown University, where he tells the Dean that he was the one responsible for Jane's expulsion from Cornwall, and that she was innocent of any wrongdoing. He convinces the Dean of Jane's innocence, which the Dean uses to influence the review board to overturn their decision to revoke Jane's admission.

The movie ends with Dunph graduating, with his Dad and Jackie coming to school to pick him up. Dunph is given an acceptance letter from Rhode Island Junior College by his dad. Dunph also reveals his intentions to transfer to a "senior college...where peole sleep over and shit."