Steve Martin wrote and stars in this look at the promise and dreamtime of Los Angeles culture. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a light-hearted television weatherman who does wacky comedy in lieu of reports since, being in L.A., he has very little weather to report. He spends his time roller-skating through museums and spending time with California's beautiful people. But Telemacher is fired and discovers that his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) is having an affair. He walks away from the
relationship and re-evaluates his life, getting advice from a friendly electronic highway road sign. The sign suggests that he call SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sprightly and attractive Valley Girl he met in a clothing store. With SanDeE he experiences a liberating and carefree spirit. But Telemacher comes to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Sara (Victoria Tennant), a tuba-playing British journalist who is in California to do a feature on Los Angeles lifestyles. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
This is a very personal Martin project -- the sweet-souled, nonstop-funny testament of a native Angeleno. Sly and soulful, it's the comedy that dares to be dippy.
Like Mr. Martin himself, L.A. Story seems basically decent, intelligent and sweet. It's a fanciful romantic comedy whose wildest and craziest notion is that Los Angeles, for all of its eccentricities, is a great place to live.
To borrow from Abe Lincoln: Steve Martin's L.A. Story will make all of the people laugh some of the time, some of the people laugh all of the time but not...well, you know the rest.
If the material had been presented more insistently, it might have been insufferable, too goopy and new-age. Its modesty, though, is its prime virtue. It's breezy and light as cloud's breath -- not so much airheaded as air-hearted.
Steve Martin shows again in this film that he has found the right comic presence for the movies; the lack of subtlety in early films like The Jerk has now been replaced by a smoothness and unforced intelligence.
Unlike Woody Allen's New York City, which becomes a staging area for character angst and transformation, Martin's L.A. stifles the characters, and neither they, screenwriter Martin or director Jackson seem to be aware of it.
Steve Martin's script, a delightfully scatty account of life in the city of angels, exposes romance lurking beyond the snobbish restaurants and routine muggings...
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