HouseSitter *** (1992, Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Dana Delany, Julie Harris, Donald Moffat, Peter MacNicol) – Classic Movie Review 6899

Director Frank Oz’s 1992 fantasy romantic comedy HouseSitter is uneven, but it is always an amiable and inoffensive entertainment, and in its best stretches it is very funny.

Steve Martin stars as Newton Davis, a Boston architect who builds a dream home for his girlfriend, who rejects him. Then, after he has a comforting one-night stand with con artist Gwen (Goldie Hawn), she lies her way into his home and life, moving into his empty house, setting up home, and posing as his new wife.

Nobody manages to persuade anybody that it is for real, and Hawn’s kookie charm wears perilously thin in this infuriating character. But Martin has an advantage in that his part does not demand charm, just humour, and he is an expert grabber of laughs.

Donald Moffat and Julie Harris score as Martin’s dotty parents, who take a shine to Gwen. And Dana Delany deals briskly with a rotten, unsympathetic part as Becky, the girlfriend who rejects Martin but sees him in a different light when she finds him with Gwen.

Miles Goodman’s score is insistently bright and jolly.

Also in the cast are Peter MacNicol, Laurel Cronin, Christopher Durang and Richard B Shull.

HouseSitter is directed by Frank Oz, runs 101 minutes, is produced by Imagine, is released by Universal, is written by Mark Stein, from a story by Mark Stein and Brian Grazer, is shot by John A Alonzo, is produced by Brian Grazer and is scored by Miles Goodman.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6899

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