L.A. STORY: Blu-ray (Carolco, 1991) Lionsgate Home Video
Steve Martin is Harris K.
Telemacher – a harried weatherman on the cusp of a mid-life crisis in director,
Mick Jackson’s monumentally hilarious and self-deprecating rom/com, L.A.
Story (1991). Martin was, by then, one of America’s premiere farceurs,
having risen through the ranks of some silly stints on Lorne Michael’s SNL,
to make the successful leap into pictures, bounding from one mega-comedy-hit to
the next, seemingly, with effortless zeal. In hindsight, there was a formula to
Martin’s early pictures that relied too heavily, on a faux incredulity to sell
their wares. L.A. Story is refreshingly unlike Martin’s other comedy fair,
illustrating the inklings of a more ‘mature’, though no less robust, and frequently
more refined raconteur, capable of finding the jest in just about every aspect
of the California lifestyle, decidedly unique, occasionally – quite absurd – but
mostly, totally foreign to the rest of us living beyond its hallowed and kooky,
sun-lit borders. Scripted by Martin, the picture also stars his ‘then’ wife,
Victoria Tennant, as U.K. reporter, Sara McDowel, the proverbial fish-out-of-water
who finds virtually everything about her first trip to the Golden State –
including its populace – utterly superficial. This amuses Harris as he too has
begun to realize how tragically vacuous and dull his life has become. Playing
the weekend whacky weatherman on a local network, his bits of business to amuse
the television audience have worn out their welcome. His coworkers, Bob (Andrew
Amador) and Gail (Gail Grate) think him a colossal joke, while his boss (an
uncharacteristically stern, Wood Harrelson, in one of the many star-filled
cameos to dot this landscape) gets upset and fires Harris after his
pre-recorded forecast predicting just another sun-filled weekend at the beach results
in an actual storm to swamp and wreck the boss’ yacht.
At its core, L.A. Story is the
tale of a lonely – rather than a ‘wild and crazy’ – guy whose sunny outlook,
presumably to match and compliment his surroundings, is actually a total
fabrication – a manufactured happiness into which Sara’s stumbling creates a
seismic shift, awakening, and finally, concern that perhaps life, preciously,
but without purpose, is a dead end in need of a more genuine influence to make
it click as it should. The movie also co-stars furture Sex and the City
alumni, Sarah Jessica Parker as ‘SanDeE’ - a flighty young miss, to mildly
distract our nominal seeker of life by introducing him to new ‘needless’
experiences he might otherwise have more smartly avoided – like the laughable
high colonic enema, and an outing to the city’s most trend-setting watering
hole, the aptly named ‘L’Idiot’ in which admission is prescreened by a
pompous maitre d', Mr. Perdue (Patrick Stewart) who, upon examining Harris’ financial
bank statements deems he is not ‘important’ enough to dine with Hollywood’s hoi
poloi. Unhappy circumstance, Sara’s ex, Roland McKay (Richard E. Grant) effortlessly
pulls off the coup of a reservation, proving two-fold, first – he is more
financially well-off than Harris, but second, precisely the sort of vacuous popinjay
suitable for entry into this poshly ridiculous enclave. An abundance of
star-turn cameos remind us we are, as the fictional Dorothy Gale cast into Oz,
no longer anchored in reality, but actually, to have been magically teleported
into a facsimile of that other-worldly fantasy realm, though only equitable to
some, where movie stars, has-beens and total nobodies intermingle to create a
truly weird milieu where anything, and everything, is possible. And so, we get
Rick Moranis, rather underused herein, and in the last movie he would appear in
with Martin, as a nondescript, Brit-accented gravedigger, Paula Abdul, as a roller
skater, Chevy Chase (Carol Christopher), Larry Miller (Tom), Marilu Henner (as
Harris’ soon-to-be ex, high-maintenance, Trudi), and, Susan Forristal (as Harris’
best friend, Ariel).
L.A. Story opens with a beautifully
composed montage of L.A.’s incongruously tailored panorama, and an inspired shot
of super models casting their heads upwards to a giant hotdog being carried
overhead by a helicopter. The sequence is loosely inspired by Federico Fellini’s
opening shot in La Dolce Vita (1960), where similarly, a gaggle of
Italian sun-bathing beauties are baffled by a giant statue of Christ sailing
through the air, en route to the Vatican. Herein, the less than sacred spectacle
is set to Charles Trenet’s La Mer. We fade into the mind of Harris K.
Telemacher who informs us he has had 8 heart attacks since moving to the city
of the angels…all of them – imagined! We witness Harris astride an exer-cycle
in the park while a non-descript athlete in the background suddenly collapses
from heat stroke, and then, begin to realize Harris is on the fast track to
becoming that guy – disillusioned by life, bored with his job, tired of the dating
scene, and utterly disgusted to have arrived at the mid-point of his own under
such insincere and unsatisfying circumstances. At present, Harris is the
cuckold of a social-climbing gal/pal, Trudi who believes her boyfriend’s job is
undignified and unintellectual. With a PhD in the arts and humanities, Harris,
who dons various disguises as he delivers his weather prognostications, acting
like an utter buffoon, would have to agree. His life is a mess…and not even a
hot one at that. His days are wasted rather than spent, ordering overly
pretentious coffee, and partaking of the ritualized and thoroughly bizarre freeway
shooting etiquette, roller-skating through art galleries with Ariel, indulging
in eccentric critiques, fracturing Shakespeare, and doing everything and anything
to numb his disdain with himself.
Forced into another superficial
luncheon - a meet and greet for Trudi’s new clientele, Harris is inadvertently
introduced to Sara – a London journalist who immediately garners his attention
when she unintentionally marks, then glibly, though without malice, trashes these
Californians as culturally/morally bankrupt. Boy, does she have L.A. pegged! Trudi
is unimpressed by her boyfriend’s distraction. Experiencing car trouble on the
ride home, Harris, attends the problem under the hood, only to get a bit of
advice from a clairvoyant freeway sign, displaying messages exclusively
intended for him. It’s a sign – literally – that his life is heading in
the wrong direction, and Harris takes to heart its rather cryptic counsel on
love. To this end, he pursues Sara, actually
in town to reconcile with her ex, Roland. Believing Sara will never find him as
stimulating intellectually, Harris begins dating SanDeE* - a thoroughly empty-headed
sales clerk, working at The Gap, with rather limited aspirations of becoming a
Vana White-esque spokesmodel. Discovers Trudi in an affair with his agent,
Morris Frost (Sam McMurray), Harris throws himself, body and soul, into his relationship
with the much younger SanDeE. However, almost
immediately this is thrown into jeopardy when Sara's feelings toward Roland wane
and she finds herself becoming attracted to Harris instead. Things reach a
fevered head when Roland, Sarah, SanDeE and Harris all arrive at the same hacienda
for the weekend, and, upon sleeping together as couples, discover they actually
desire other people. Disgusted to learn Harris and SanDeE are an item, Sara is
determined to go back to England. Alas, fate has other designs. Harris and Sara
are reunited under the clairvoyant freeway sign, now instructing Harris to
passionately kiss Sara to prove the merits of his love for her. For once, Harris throws caution to the wind, repeatedly
smothering Sara’s protestations with kisses. Sara realizes they are sole mates
for life, leaving SanDeE and Roland to go in search of their own happiness
elsewhere.
L.A. Story is a richly
satisfying rom/com that has been out of circulation for far too long. The
precise reason for its absence may have something to do with its chronic rights
issues lapsing from company to company after the derailment of the now defunct
Carolco, to have originally been responsible for its production and release via
Tri-Star Pictures. Lionsgate, the present custodians have certainly been
dragging the heels for some time. Arguably, the new image harvest has been worth
the wait. L.A. Story in hi-def is not perfect. But it does advance
considerably from the tired old DVD release, no at least 2 decades overdue for
this upgrade. Minute age-related artifacts still exist here. These could have, and
should have been eradicated, especially for a 30th Anniversary edition.
Colors pop as they should with renewed vibrancy. Flesh tones have been
accurately rendered. Andrew Dunn’s splashy cinematography finally gets shown
off in a manner befitting its lush and lovely, fully saturated primaries.
Contrast is excellent, though there remains some ever-so-slight black crush
during night scenes, easily overlooked but present nonetheless. Fine details
pop as they should. The 5.1 DTS soundtrack represents a good solid remastering
effort, with dialogue crisp, front and center, and a subtle spread of SFX and
score across the rest of the channels. Extras include deleted scenes and outtakes,
not remastered and looking very rough indeed, a newly produced O2BINLA: Mick
Jackson’s L.A. Stories puff piece in which the director briefly schmoozes
about his experiences making the movie, and two vintage featurettes, The
Story of L.A. Story, and, The L.A. of L.A. Story,
topped off by an original theatrical trailer. Bottom line: extras, at this
point in the market of home video, have been distilled into a necessary evil for
most distributors. They’d rather not include them, but do, realizing the level
of expectation is there from the avid collector, hoping to embrace the
backstage as well as ‘front of the house’ entertainment value to be gleaned by
such offerings. L.A. Story is a brilliant piece of comedy given an
adequate upgrade in hi-def. Recommended!
FILM RATING (out
of 5 – 5 being the best)
4.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
2.5
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