BEFORE: A little bit of a thematic jump tonight, from a heist film to a comedy - but I am going from a film about a thief to one about a con artist. Linking from "Thief", James Caan was in "Honeymoon in Vegas" with Sarah Jessica Parker, who was in L.A. Story with Steve Martin (last seen in "It's Complicated") and we send Birthday SHOUT-out #55 to Mr. Martin as well.
THE PLOT: Con artist Gwen moves into Newton's empty house without his knowledge, and begins setting up house posing as his new wife.
AFTER: It's a cute little comedy, nothing really earth-shaking about it, just a normal guy who's trying to get over being rejected by his girlfriend, who he proposed to and built a house for. In his rebound phase, he sleeps with a waitress, who turns out to be a con artist.
Since he casually mentioned that he has a house upstate with no one living in it, she heads up there and moves in. However, she's not prepared for small town life and the way that rumors and gossip can spread through the town, so her little lie about being the architect's wife is rapidly heard by his ex-girlfriend and his father.
This sets up an elaborate ruse where people start sending wedding gifts and such - and the architect plays along, because it seems that, paradoxically, this is a way to prove that he's husband-type material to his ex. Put on a show for a few months, fake a divorce to go with the fake wedding, and he figures his ex will snatch him up afterwards.
But the lies grow more and more elaborate, and eventually the love triangle becomes real, as the fictional marriage becomes more attractive. The problem with any love triangle movie set up is that one character will eventually be left out in the cold, it just comes down to which way you want to take the story. Both women here seem like decent folk (except for that con-artist thing), and the ex-girlfriend (Dana Delany, last seen in "Moon Over Parador") hasn't really done anything to make the audience hate her (except for that rejection thing) - so it didn't really matter to me which woman he ended up with.
I suppose it would have been too easy to make the ex-girlfriend a real shrew, or make the con artist truly evil, instead of just ditsy. Instead the movie chooses to walk a really fine line. But that also sort of cripples it, the comedy can't really go too far in any one direction.
Also starring Goldie Hawn (last seen in "The First Wives Club"), Peter MacNicol (last seen in "Sophie's Choice"), Donald Moffat (last seen in "Popeye"), and playwright Christopher Durang (I remember working on a video shoot starring him back in 1990 or so).
RATING: 5 out of 10 blueprints
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