ROXANNE
(1987)
Starring
Steve Martin, Daryl Hannah, Rick Rossovich, Shelley Duvall, John
Kapelos, Fred Willard, Max Alexander, Michael J. Pollard, Damon
Wayans. Directed by Fred Schepisi. (102 min)
ON
BLU-RAY FROM
Review
by Mr. Pawsđ˝
If
you’re of a certain age, perhaps this sounds familiar…
Back
in the late ‘80s, my young wife, Francie, and I would often venture
to our local video store, grabbing a batch of movies to enjoy over
the weekend. People often say opposites attract, an old adage that
certainly applied to our entertainment choices (and still does, for
the most part). Francie mostly enjoyed lighter fare – romance,
comedy, fantasy, romantic comedy, romantic fantasy, romantic fantasy
comedy. You get the idea. While I don’t necessarily hate those
genres, I generally got my jollies from darker, weirder, more violent
stuff.
Here’s
what a great husband I am: We always watched Francie’s movies
first, since she had little-to-no interest in many of my choices and
I was more of a night-owl, anyway. Hence, I ended up sitting through
a lot of movies I would never have chosen on my own (though Francie
deserves credit for introducing me to The Princess Bride).
All
successful marriages involve a bit of compromise and I’m pretty
sure one of those compromise movies was Roxanne, Steve
Martin’s romantic comedy update of Cyrano de Bergerac. A
Francie movie if there ever was one, I was fairly ambivalent about
it. Having grown up on the “wild and crazy” Steve Martin from The
Jerk and his off-the-wall comedy records, it was a bit
disheartening that he was slowly leaving that persona behind.
 |
| Bird is the word. |
Still,
Martin is a good actor and Roxanne demonstrates his maturity
as a screenwriter. Whether that latter point is good or bad is
subjective, but Roxanne nevertheless remains a critical and
fan favorite. As his romantic comedies go, it’s probably Martin’s
sweetest film. Comparatively speaking, it’s more charming than The
Lonely Guy, though not as funny as All of Me (which
benefited from Martin’s increasingly underused talent as a physical
comedian).
I
enjoyed the movie back then, though like most of Martin’s ‘80s
films, it wasn’t anything I felt compelled to revisit. Seeing
Roxanne again all these years later was more of a nostalgic
experience than anything else, especially with this retro-packaged
cover by my side. It looks almost exactly like the very box that once
sat between Francie and I on the sofa (complete with stickers
indicating what video shelf it belongs on). It’s been released on
Blu-ray before and while this re-issue adds no bonus features, the
cover art makes it a fun purchase for those who fondly recall renting
VHS tapes with that significant other.
KITTY CONSENSUS:
NOT BAD. LIKE CAT CHOW.
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