Housesitter

Starring: Goldie Hawn

Directed by: Frank Oz

RS: Not Rated

1992 Romance

In trying to uncover the bright side of Fatal Attraction, Housesitter offers convincing evidence that there's something fundamentally unfunny about psychosis and emotional retardation. Goldie Hawn plays Gwen, a waitress who meets and sleeps with Boston architect Newton Davis (Steve Martin). By the next day he's forgotten her, but she's broken into the vacant country house that he built for Becky (a pert Dana Delaney), the childhood sweetheart who's just jilted him.

While Davis mopes in the city, Gwen convinces his parents (Julie Harris and Donald Moffat) that their prodigal son has taken her to wife. She captivates the townspeople until Davis shows up and threatens to throw her out. But wait. Becky is turned on by the fact that sexy Gwen finds Davis attractive. So he pays Gwen to stay on as his bride until Becky gets jealous enough to want him back.

It's not surprising that this screwball farce never works up a spin. Gwen is a pathological liar whom the script, by Mark Stein, attempts to pass off as a free spirit. Hawn is getting too old to be doing the adolescent-kook routine from her Laugh-In days. She is capable of nuanced work, as in her unfairly neglected last film, Criscross. But Gwen brings out her worst giggly mannerisms.

Martin fares better, because director Frank Oz plays to his strengths as a physical comic. But Davis's obtuseness wears thin. It's hard to feel charmed when everyone delights in Gwen's lies. Instead of taking these characters to heart, you want to take them to therapy.

PETER TRAVERS
RS 634/35