The large-nosed C.D. Bales is in love with the beautiful Roxanne; she falls for his personality but another man’s looks.
Every once in a while my friends tell me “you’ve seen everything there is to see.” I tell them pretty often that I have many gaps in my film catalog but they never seem to believe me. When I was sent “Roxanne” to be reviewed, I had no idea this would be a film I needed to help close my film catalog gap.
Steve Martin plays Charlie Bales, the fire chief of a small town who happens to have a really big nose. When he falls for Roxanne (Daryl Hannah) he finds it hard to muster up the confidence to tell her, especially since she has feelings for someone else. First things first, this film is hilarious. Little did I know Steve Martin himself wrote the screenplay and you can tell through its laughs but also its flaws. There are many times you laugh out loud and I was fairly impressed by that considering the film was over three decades old. Martin is quite easily the standout of the film as he is very charismatic, self-conscious but also a wildly entertaining man. The rest of the cast does a fine job including a hilarious team of firefighters under Bales. While I enjoyed the film, I do think the actual story beats jump around a lot. The overall fluidity of the film lacked a bit and I felt like there were pieces missing throughout. However, the characters are well-realized and all add their right ingredients to the film.
The biggest surprise to me happens to be the actual technical filmmaking of “Roxanne.” Fred Schepisi directs and definitely leaves his stamps on the entire film. The cinematography is really engaging and does a great job of making the film feel personal to the characters on screen. The music is very sweet and is a great companion piece to the movie. The aesthetic through production design, costumes, and the overall color of the film is a character that I find hard to explain but once you see it, you’ll understand. Can’t sing this film’s technical praises enough.
If you don’t have “Roxanne” in your in movie collection, change that. Great laughs, superb feel-good story and great direction all across the board. This one may get multiple viewings from me.
Now available on Retro VHS-Style Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment
