Comic dynamos Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn pair up for the first time in director Frank Oz's romantic comedy of an architect and waitress who spin wild tales about being married to each other, only to discover that their stories aren’t entirely false. When Davis (Martin) tries to eject unwanted housesitter Gwen (Hawn) from his lovely but unoccupied house, he discovers that Gwen’s romantic lies to the locals about their whirlwind courtship and wedding have captured the townsfolk’s hearts and made jealous the woman who turned down Davis's marriage proposal months before. Seeing the opportunity to win back his sweetheart, Becky, Davis agrees to let Gwen stay in the house while they pretend to be married. As Gwen’s clever stories bring Becky and a deserved promotion within reach, Davis must figure out how much of his sham marriage is truly a sham. Hilarious when on their own, Hawn and Martin ratchet comedy up to a whole new level when they team up in one of the most outrageous and backward courtships ever.
2.
Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn star in this hilarious romantic comedy about the consequences of "stretching" the truth. When architect Newton Davis' girlfriend Becky (Dana Delany) turns down his marriage proposal, his newly-built dream house suddenly becomes nothing more than an empty monument to her rejection. That is, until a chance encounter with Gwen (Hawn) turns his life upside-down.
Intrigued by Newton's story, Gwen visits the house and decides to move in on her own. Resourceful and creative, Gwen is soon fixing up the house and charming Newton's family and neighbors - all the while passing herself off as his new wife! Gwen even befriends Becky, who begins to see a Newton she never knew existed.
Horrified at the deception yet unable to stop it, Newton finds himself playing along with her preposterous stories, her attempts at reconciling differences within his family and her campaign for his promotion at work. Finally, he convinces Gwen to fabricate their "divorce" so he can still get married to Becky - until he has a change of heart. It's a delightful, warmhearted and intelligent comedy from director Frank Oz.
3.
A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim.
Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting.
On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman
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