Modernized "Cyrano de Bergerac" from writer and star Steve Martin concerns long-nosed fireman in a picturesque town playing matchmaker for a shy co-worker and the new girl on the block (a beautiful but curiously single astronomer...she's such a romantic she literally studies the stars!). Pleasant and inoffensive in every way, but who wants nothing but valentines from a movie? It's a pretty pastry, all fluff. The sequence wherein C. D. asserts himself over a rowdy in a crowded bar is a big showpiece for Martin, but he's too calculated and at the ready; quips fall from his lips faster than a plausible speed of thought. One might argue that C. D. had these retorts stored away for years, but Martin's composure is too neat and tidy (like a showman). Daryl Hannah is lovely but oddly muted, while Shelley Duvall gives her little supporting bit a welcomed goose. Otherwise, "Roxanne" is sugar-coated; it's a cross between wisecracks and Frosted Flakes. Martin won the WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium but was overlooked by the Academy. ** from ****
Review of Roxanne
