One of my favourite Steve Martin comedies, before he followed the example of Woody Allen and stopped with the comedy and hankered after more serious parts in dull films by Ron Howard and David Mamet. This is definitely how I like him best, in genuinely funny situations that make you laugh. He wrote his own screenplay too, cleverly if loosely taking the old classic story of the big-nosed romantic Cyrano De Bergerac and transplanting it to a modern American small town romantic comedy.

As Charlie, the local fire-chief, Martin's character, besides being a loquacious wordsmith, is also, it would appear, a Cirque-class acrobat and martial arts expert which he amply demonstrates as the movie progresses. The arrival in town of intellectual hottie Darryl Hannah finds the two striking up a blossoming if offbeat friendship before the entrance of lunk-hunk Chris, nicely played by Rick Rossovich, to his fire-crew finds Charlie pressed into action as Chris's prompter in trying to win over Hannah's heart in his stead.

Needless to say, the paths of true love don't run smoothly but do eventually find their rightful destinations for all the main parties but not before many highly comedic scenes get in the way. The extended scenes where Martin takes out two insulting tennis players at the start, his top 20 nose-jokes and especially the by-proxy seduction of Hannah at her Juliet window are all hilarious, but there's plenty of devilry in the detail too especially the short scenes with the "Golden Girls" of the town.

Just maybe, Martin could have downplayed the slapstick comedy element of his Keystone Fire Brigade, which can't touch the Golden Silents of Keaton and Lloyd for amusement, but their coming together to finally demonstrate competence in actually putting out a fire, to the strains of "The Blue Danube", at least concluded another minor plot story arc too. Oh, and I hated the sleep-inducing saxophone-dominated soundtrack too, but hey, this was the 80's, I guess.

Martin is terrific in the "Cyrano" part and Darryl Hannah is surprisingly good in being asked to do more than just shake her curls. Mild distraction as they were as a group, it was still nice to see Michael J Pollard as one of the fire crew too.

Like I said, I'm a big fan of Martin's early comedies and this is one of his best. If I'm lying, may my nose grow in length!

I have to admit that this was a nice and sweet version of Martin's interpretation of Cyrano de Bergerac. It was nice to see a little comedy into the story. I know of the story, but have seen none of the movies. So, this is pretty much as close as I will get to the story even though my mom has the old version of Cyrano de Bergerac, it doesn't look that entertaining.

Steve plays Charlie, a kind and funny fireman with one little... well... actually huge thing on his face, a very long and big nose. But he ends up meeting Roxanne, a very beautiful woman who is a rocket scientist and just wants be romanced, she meets another man, Chris, very handsome, but doesn't exactly have a way with words. Charlie has a huge crush on Roxanne, but she's attracted to Chris, Chris also has a thing for Roxanne, so through the hardest times, Chralie helps Chris try to woe Roxanne with his words going through Chris's mouth.

It's a very sweet and romantic movie with some good little laughs here and there. I think this is an under rated Steve Martin movie that I think everyone could give a chance too. Because, let's face it, we all have that little imperfection that can always be seen as unique and beautiful in the eyes of other's.

7/10

Steve Martin is Charlie, a fire chief in a small Washington State city where he is as legendary as Cyrano de Bergerac, the French hero whom he emulates in this sweet comedy that was a major crowd pleaser in its day and hopefully will one day be considered a classic. He is an easy-going fellow, well liked by the firemen under his command, yet he has one feature strangers will find hard to avoid staring at: his enormous schnoz. Yes, like Durante, W.C. and Streisand, Charlie is famous for his nose. He can even drink out of it, uses it as a stand for his little bird friends and can even peck obnoxious bullies in the eye with it if he gets too agitated by their harassment. When first seen, he takes on two golfers with his tennis racket, dancing around as them if he was Charlie Chaplin on roller skates.

The gorgeous Darryl Hannah gets rid of her mermaid fins to play the beautiful new girl in town, a student of the stars who is not only a looker but personable and intelligent. The sweet but dumb Rick Rossovich is Chris, a brawny new fireman in Martin's brigade who falls head over heels for her but can't seem to get an intelligent word to come out of his mouth. This is where Martin comes in, as poetic as he is temperamental of his head's middle appendage, and in the process, he falls in love with her too, but his love is not based upon lust; It is based upon knowing exactly what to say to her to make her feel special, and in the process of communicating to her for Rossovich, he makes Hannah fall in love with the idea, if not the man, whom she had animal attraction to and pretty much nothing else.

This movie is practically picture perfect, taking what in other hands would come off as idiotic humor and making it seem as graceful as the ballet. Martin makes this clear in the seemingly infantile opening as he takes on the two idiot golf players, turns it onto a bully in a bar (20 big nose jokes to put the man to shame) and eventually proves that it isn't the physical that matters but what's in the heart and what that heart will share with the heart it is meant to be aligned with. One of the best romantic comedies of the 1980's, this was Martin's most praised performance, and many critics yelped about him not getting an Oscar Nomination when he clearly deserved it. Yet, other earlier films from his resume seem to be more remembered today, and as entertaining as they are, they don't hold a candle to this.

Who else emulated feminine beauty in the 1980's more than the gorgeous Darryl Hannah who made film history as a mermaid and allowed herself to become dowdy for "Steel Magnolias" simply to get the chance to play a real character. She is beautiful without being unapproachable, an earthly goddess one could look at and fall in love with in a sisterly way. Shelley Duvall takes on one of her least weirdo characters here, as far from Popeye's Olive Oyl as possible. She is the voice of wisdom here for both Martin and Hannah and the transition for her is a nice change of pace.

I also want to praise the original music score by Bruce Smeaton, a mostly saxophone score back when that was the most popular instrument for movie themes. (Think also "Crimes of the Heart"). Yet, in spite of the many scores which focused mainly on the Sax, this one stands out, and will ring in your ears as so romantically appropriate for this film for which many bags of popcorn were crunched and munched on during 1987. Beautifully directed, written and filmed, "Roxanne" is a throwback to the old romantic comedies of the 30's and 40's which are seldom made today, and rarely as great.