Vermont Is For Lovers

In this low-budget independent comedy from 1992, writer-director John O’Brien gives us a young, quarreling couple from New York who drive up to rural Vermont to get married. Unfortunately, O’Brien’s idea of a good laugh is playing a jazzy version of The Farmer in the Dell every time he shows a cow or a goose. Shot cinema-verite style with impromptu zooms and jump cuts, this is an uneasy blend of folk documentary and romantic comedy in which the authentic locals are in effect invited to upstage the petulant, fictional couple. Part of the intention is clearly to celebrate old-time American lifestyles on the verge of extinction, but the cuteness and the contrivance keep getting in the way. With George Thrush and Marya Cohn. (JR)

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