ecl@hocsj.UUCP (11/02/84)
ALL OF ME
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Steve Martin's humor is a matter of taste. I generally find something
to like in a Steve Martin act, and a good deal that I consider just stupid.
His films, on the other hand, get better the more he makes, and I will say
that he seems willing to experiment. PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, for example, was
an ambitious failure that deserves a little more recognition than it got.
The same probably goes for DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. ALL OF ME is a little
more traditional a comedy, but only a little. The plot concerns a wealthy
woman (Lily Tomlin) who wants to have her soul put in a younger body when
she dies. It is, but not the body she had planned on. Instead of
inhabiting her stableman's beautiful daughter (don't they always have
beautiful daughters?), it instead inhabits the right side of Steve Martin's
body. Hence she becomes his better half through literal cohabitation.
Martin's abilities as a physical comedian are really put to the test by
all of this and occasionally are found wanting, but generally he is quite
good at disassociating the two halves of his body, having each play a
different character. The script is often very funny with a particular
favorite scene being in a courtroom in which Martin is a man imitating a
woman imitating a man. As my wife pointed out, this makes the scene an
interesting dual to VICTOR VICTORIA. This is one of the best comedies I
have seen in a while. Rate it +1 on a -4 to +4 scale.
(Evelyn C. Leeper for)
Mark R. Leeper
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