Housesitter

If you’re fond of Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn’s physical talents for comedy even when they have slender material to work with, this occasionally amusing fluff can pass the time. Martin plays a frustrated Boston architect who builds a dream house for the woman back home (Dana Delany) he’s smitten with, only to have his marriage proposal rejected. Enter Hawn, a waitress who encounters Martin, hears about the empty house, and promptly moves in, pretending to be Martin’s newlywed wife and foisting elaborate deceptions on his parents (Julie Harris and Donald Moffat) as well as his beloved. Frank Oz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) directed fairly well from a rudimentary script by Mark Stein and Brian Grazer; among the secondary cast are Peter MacNicol, Richard B. Shull, Laurel Cronin, Roy Cooper, and, in a jokey cameo as a clergyman, playwright Christopher Durang. (JR)

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