Housesitter | 
| Director: Frank Oz
Actors: Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Dana Delany, Julie Harris, Donald Moffat
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $3.65
You Save: $6.34 (63%)
New (39) Used (19) from $3.64
Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 4464
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 102 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: D20319D
ISBN: 078322740X
UPC: 025192031922
EAN: 9780783227405
ASIN: 078322740X
Theatrical Release Date: June 12, 1992
Release Date: July 22, 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 3-JUN-2003
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com
The teaming of Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn would seem to have been sure-fire casting, but Housesitter's writing is never strong enough to sustain it and the film's hit-and-miss quality has more misses than hits. Martin plays an architect who builds his dream house for his high school sweetheart (Dana Delany), then surprises her with a marriage proposal--both of which she rejects. Distraught, he goes back to New York and pours out his heart to a woman he meets in a bar and beds (Hawn), not realizing she is a flaky con artist. She knows a good thing when she hears it and heads for his hometown, moves into the empty dream house, and begins passing herself off as Martin's new wife. Though the writers build in a variety of complications (involving Delany, as well as Martin's parents and boss), the film finds its jokes only in fits and starts, though Martin has a particularly hilarious moment when he must sing to his father in front of a crowd of strangers. --Marshall Fine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Lots of Laughs December 7, 2004
Laura De Giorgio (Canada)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
A charming comedy played superbly by Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn.
Martin plays a decently successful architect and uses his talent to build a house for his high-school sweatheart. He is rather romantically inclined and presents her with this engagement gift wrapped in a big red ribbon. This scares away his high-school sweatheart as she interprets it as him being too imaginative and living in the fantasy-land than being a down-to-earth man, she'd prefer to be with.
Heartbroken, he ends up in a Hungarian restaurant to wash away his woes and eventually pours out his heart to a waitress, played by Goldie Hawn, who doesn't stop a beat to take advantage of the situation. She is an adventurous free-spirit, endowed with wild imagination, who believes that life is to be experienced and she'll do whatever it takes to experience the richness of life.
After spending one night with the architect, she promptly packs and unbeknonst to him, move into his newly built house. After all, why leave such a lovely house empty? She quickly gets acquainted with local people, charges everything to the architect's account and gets to meet even his parents, to him she presents herself as the architect's wife. As unique as she is - an acquired taste, as her make-believe inlaws would say, she has a very charming personality and everybody delights in her presence. Whatever the situation, she always has a ready answer, often backed with a wild and outrageous story.
When Martin shows up at his newly-built house and finds her there, he is at first stunned, but figures that the only way to get out of it is by incorporating and continuing her make-believe stories and inventing that they are now getting divorced. Not only her parents get involved, but also the local priest, who acts as a marriage counsellor, attempting to help them rescue the marriage.
Steve Martin is not so good at coming with impromptu answers and he usually botches things up, but Goldie Hawn, quite experienced at playing the game, always manages to rescue the situation. She utterly enjoys playing the game and continues playing her own agenda. She even manages to get him promoted.
All the events draw attention of his high-school sweatheart who develops some new interest in him - though they face themselves once again with their individual preferences as Martin discovers that he much prefers to live in a wild and imaginary world of Goldie Hawn, which has infused him with added spice and zest for life.
 Excellent screwball comedy vehicle for Steve & Goldie May 5, 2004
R.L. Holly (Austin, TX USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
I wish more projects were assembled for this tag-team of born screwball comedy geniuses, because "Housesitter" offers a great display of how well Martin and Hawn work together onscreen. Their senses of timing are tremendous and both have a gift for physical comedy and wringing the best out of every line of dialogue. I disagree with the Amazon staff reviewer, I think this movie is very well constructed, with a tight plotline and just the right balance of jokes and exposition. Not a word or scene is wasted. The humor is absurdist but good-natured, as in older-style films, and the supporting cast does standout service. This is a very underrated comedy, in my view, and I give it a high recommendation for fans of either of these fine actors or zany comedy in general. A very refreshing change from in-you-face gross-out jokes and sophomoric scatalogical/sexual put-down gags that pass as "comedy" in so many films today.
Wonderful! July 21, 2005
Mark Stewart (Sacramento, CA United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Most of us know the story. I'm just going to add my favorate scenes and thoughts. Becky didn't deserve Newton. She turned his marriage proposal down because she did not see the value in his creativity and vision. We get a real sense of what Gwen is feeling the first time she sees the house. Imagine this: You are walking thru a brand new house that was custom designed by someone you know. No one has ever lived in it, and the person it was offered to has turned it down. Gwen thought the house was so beautiful that she sat out side of the house and stared at it in amazement! Although she initially didn't want Newton around because of her con, we know that she could see the value of the man. This is the focus of the story: not the house but the story of a woman recognizing the quailites of Newton.
One of my favorite movies!
Housesitters June 8, 2007
lds (Massachusetts)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie is one of Goldies best and Steve Martin does great as the straight guy.....a real keeper.
 Great casting, in a light feel-good movie March 14, 2007
Monica B. Davis (San Francisco, CA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a charming, light, sweet screwball comedy, with an excellent ensemble cast all wonderful in their roles. Goldie Hawn beautifully plays a charming, off-beat con artist, whose pathological lying and skewed take on reality unwittingly lead her to bring about genuine love and kindness. Along the way, she reunites a family; sheds light on the old flame of her "victim" Steve Martin (exposing the motivations of the woman who broke his heart); and creates two new families -- proving that, in the movies at least, you may be able to make a silk purse from a sow's ear.
The couple Goldie's character enlists to play her parents are delightful. So are the small-town characters and situations. Though the overall plot may be somewhat predictable, enough surprises are sprinkled throughout to make the film enjoyable watching, again and again. Heartwarming moments, and the lack of the modern age's gross-out techniques, are huge pluses, to this viewer. Fans of whimsical, somewhat innocent light comedy likely will enjoy this film.
Steve and Goldie have great chemistry in "Housesitter." Their roles here lack the sometimes-shrillness that marred their later pairing in the remake of "The Out-Of-Towners" (a film which did have some funny moments, by Steve, Goldie, and the hilarious John Cleese). Well-written and well-acted subtlety make "Housesitter" a charming film to enjoy watching again over the years.
Steve Martin's wonderful dancing and physical comedy skills are not used a lot in "Housesitter," but his great performance doesn't require them. In fact, this role allows him to demonstrate his skill in pathos and dramatic acting. (For a side-splittingly funny movie that showcases his excellence in dancing and physical comedy, there is the hilarious "All of Me," whose wonderful cast includes superb performances by Lily Tomlin, Jason Bernard, Richard Libertini, and Victoria Tennant.)
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