"Mumford." Well, that sounds like an odd name. Any film with a name this crazy has got to be good, right? Here's the kicker: It is a great movie. With production companies coming up with crazy names for movies just to fill theaters — like the Edward Furlong disaster, "Pecker" — people are finding out that the off-beat name is not always a winner.

But "Mumford" delivers, as director Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill," "The Accidental Tourist") brings the story of a small-town psychiatrist and his neurotic patients to the screen. The name Mumford comes from the name of the town as well as the last name of the doctor, played by Loren Dean ("Gattaca," "Enemy of the State," "Apollo 13").

"Mumford" takes audiences to a quaint little town with what looks to be ordinary, run-of-the-mill country folk. Once reclined in Doc Mumford's sofa, however, viewers realize just how sick and frustrated the town's inhabitants are.

Dr. Mumford first meets the pharmacist (Pruitt Taylor Vince, "Natural Born Killers," "J.F.K.," "Angel Heart"), who has paranoid fantasies of early '50s and '60s pornographic scenarios, i.e. the handsome rebel who rolls into town without a dollar to his name, and gets taken in by a buxom single mother and her equally well-endowed, blossoming teenage daughter.

Next he meets the bored housewife (Mary McDonnell, "Dances With Wolves," "Independence Day"). She is driving her husband (Ted Danson, "Three Men and a Baby," "Made in America,") and her two children nuts by buying mindless, inanimate objects from home-delivery stores like Crate and Barrel, William Sonoma and J. Crew. From the start, Mumford realizes that these two people are complete opposites and are only making each other more miserable by staying together.

There is also a 20-something mechanical genius (Jason Lee, "Mallrats," "Chasing Amy") who became a multi-billionaire by inventing a revolutionary modem for computers. He can't find a friend because his money always complicates his relationships, so instead of hiring Dr. Mumford as a therapist, he employs him as a friend who will listen and talk.

All the doctor's patients could be considered wierd or out-of-touch with reality, except for one girl (Hope Davis) who suffers from clinical depression. The doctor presents a different system of therapy for each patient, but about one-third of the way into the film, the audience realizes that he has a checkered past, including a secret that could ruin his practice and his life.

Although this film really does not boast a huge budget, it does sport a stellar cast. Martin Short ("Three Fugitives," "Captain Ron," "Mars Attacks") plays a disgruntled defense attorney who is convinced that Dr. Mumford is a fraud and not the certified psychiatrist that he claims to be. David Paymer ("City Hall," "Quiz Show," "Mr. Saturday Night") plays the town's psychoanalyst who disagrees completely with Martin Short's character and also comes under the care of Mumford.

The first 30 minutes of "Mumford" is extremely slow, thus the audience has difficulty deciding whether the film is a comedy or a drama. But things begin to roll once the doctor reveals his big secret.

From there, a beautiful and magical love story develops between Dean and Davis that snowballs on to the rest of the characters, making them feel happy and content. Each of the patients finds joy and solace, usually in the arms of another one of Doc's patients. Whatever ailment they were previously suffering from has now disappeared, going to show that warm and compassionate treatment can solve almost any problem.

There is great low-brow humor scattered throughout the film, and although it seems like he only has about eight lines in the entire movie, Ted Danson steals the show comically. The moral of the story is that everyone deserves a second chance, and even those people who everyone envies because they appear to have everything going for them, have their own dirty little secrets.

Three and one-half out of five shamrocks

• Judd and Jones find 'Double' trouble
  
• Things are OK in 'Mumford'
  
• Video Pick of the Week