in michael corrente's " outside providence " , the first image we see is that of a boy on his bicycle . behind him , tied to his bike with a rope , is a kid in a wheelchair , throwing newspapers to people's houses . tied to the wheelchair is a three-legged dog , limping for his life . we've seen this picture before , now haven't we ? if " we " have seen a film by peter and bobby farrelly , then yes , we have . but then again , the farrelly brothers' three films ( " dumb and dumber " , " kingpin " and " there's something about mary " ) all had something going for them . a hilarious sense of humor and an aura of unpredictabililty . " outside providence " , which is based on the " semi-autobiography " of peter farrelly , shares neither of these two qualities , and doesn't have much to offer . peter farrelly's alias in the film is tim dunphy ( shawn hatosy ) , a teenager who lives in 1970's pawtucket , rhode island with his wheelchair-bound little brother and his alcoholic , aggressive father ( alec baldwin ) , who refers to tim as " dildo " . tim lives a somewhat bored existence in pawtucket , where he spends his time going to parties and getting high with his friends . however , when he accidentally crashes into a parked police car , he is given no choice but to spend his senior year at cornwall academy , a strict co-ed private high school . tim makes a few new friends , and manages to break just about every rule the school has . but it isn't until he meets jane weston ( amy smart ) , the best-looking and perhaps smartest girl in school , that he begins let go and just try to have fun . and of course , through jane , tim learns about real love , and starts to do better in school . " outside providence " also relies on a small subplot which has old man dunphy ( alec baldwin ) and some of his buddies sitting around playing cards . in one particular scene , a guy named joey ( george wendt ) admits to being gay , and the guys kick him out of the house . this scene and another awful subplot involving tim's dead mother make up the dramatic core of the film , which is not good news . not only is " outside providence " a story we seem to have seen before , it is also a very poorly made film . it's predictable , corny , unfunny and gratuitous . why do i have a good feeling that the farrelly brothers were forced into adding a three-legged dog and a barfing scene ? maybe because i took a look at miramax's marketing push behind the movie . the acting isn't very good either . shawn hatosy and amy smart are one-dimensional as the leads , and even a " different " performance by alec baldwin , who surprisingly takes a supporting role here , is only marginally good . " outside providence " , the book by peter farrelly , was blasted by critics , so it doesn't surprise me that the farrelly brothers would be the ones adapting it for the screen . being a farrelly brothers movie , the movie obviously has some fun scenes , but the film as a whole feels pointless , and without direction , thanks in a large part to first-time director michael corrente . miramax films has made some very smart moves in the past few years , and financing this piece of recycled trash was not one of them . a review by akiva gottlieb , the teenage movie critic <a href= " mailto : akiva@excite . com " >akiva@excite . com</a> <a href= " http : //teenagemoviecritic . 8m . com " >http : //teenagemoviecritic . 8m . com</a> this review is also featured at <a href= " http : //jump . to/moviepage " >http : //jump . to/moviepage</a> <hr>get free voicemail , fax and email at <a href= " http : //voicemail . excite . com " >http : //voicemail . excite . com</a> talk online at <a href= " http : //voicechat . excite . com " >http : //voicechat . excite . com</a> 
