L.A. Story: A Steve Martin Production

Pictures rooted in a place and time have a heavy task to dispatch. A film is required to not only aptly convey a physical reality that a good number of viewers are familiar with, but concurrently, relate some truth about the city that it seeks to document. Of course, this latter portion of a film’s job can be related in any number of ways – and since the 1991 flick L.A. Story was written by and starred Steve Martin it’s supposed to be laughs that reveal some deep understanding of L.A.

Filmed so early in the ‘90s, Martin’s task was as tied to wrapping up the previous decade as it was to presaging what was to come next. In the guise of a zany weather man, Martin’s character, Harris K. Telemacher, drives some outdated, American made car as he doesn’t appear to care too much for outward opulence. His girlfriend, here played by Marilu Henner, though, pushes a high end Mercedes of some indeterminate model.

And while some of the more outlandish trappings of L.A. society are relegated to fluff in the mind of Telemacher, his high tech telephone and utilization of film editing gear for his performance art exudes an unassuming urbanity to it.

This story isn’t about gear and technology, though, it’s a love story. And when the weatherman winds up meeting an English journalist at a mid-day luncheon, even as his girlfriends in tow, the plot begins to take off. The visitor, Sara, seems to be out of Telemacher’s reach due to his current dating situation unfortunately.

Once the main character finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him, though, he’s all freed up – the only problem being that he doesn’t have any way to contact the object of his affection. So in lieu of finding this elusive woman, he takes up with a rather young girl, SaNdeE*, played by Sarah Jessica Parker. The two are an odd match, but get along rather famously.

A chance encounter at a museum, while pursuing his interest in the aforementioned performance art – which here constitutes roller-skating through galleries – finds Telemacher reunited with Sara. The only problem is that she’s promised her ex-husband an attempt at reconciliation. That’s only compounded by the fact that Telemacher is slated to go away for the weekend with SaNdeE*.

As the two couples surprisingly wind up at the same getaway destination, Martin’s story works out another truth about L.A. – it might be a huge place, but social situations abound. And anyone that you might want to avoid is likely to be right around the corner.

There’s this pesky business of a personified freeway sign. It gives Telemacher advice and even a riddle to solve. And while it’s all obtuse nonsense that gets related from sign to man, it functions as an eerie look at future technologies while helping to push the narrative ahead.

L.A. Story did wind up making an immediate impact on audiences, but in the twenty years since its release, the film’s gained some footing even while Martin has for all intents and purposes put down the pen and picked up his banjo.