Morgenstern needs to get out of the East coast bubble

Joe Morgenstern wrote a review of the film "Wecome to the Riley's" in last week's Wall Street Journal. He didn't particularly like it. Sounds pretty awful to me--would I pay that much and go to a theater for that or wait til it comes to the dollar theater?

But what I noticed was this line, "Doug (James Gandolfini) speaks for unspecified reasons, in a Southern accent" although the play takes place in Indianapolis.

I guess he's never lived in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, just a little below the center line, because a Midwestern speech pattern here (and I've lived in all three) might just sound "southern" to someone living in the northeast or New York City. We have a heavy dose of Appalachian English around here, which by the way, is the way the Scots Irish immigrants spoke English in the 17th and 18th centuries, Mr. Morgenstern. Their English just might be more pure than yours. To my ear, most of my Indianapolis relatives sound "southern," but then I grew up in northern Illinois, and still put and R in Washington.

Welcome to the Rileys, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, and Monsters | Film Reviews by Joe Morgenstern - WSJ.com