Bowfinger (1999)

3 out of 4

Starring: Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graham, Christine Baranski, Terence Stamp, Jamie Kennedy

Director: Frank Oz

Time: 98 mins

Playing a con artist in a Frank Oz movie is nothing new for Steve Martin, having done so before in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. In his latest film, Bowfinger, Martin is the title character, Bobby Bowfinger, a wishful director who would like nothing more than to hit the big time. When he reads a script written by his accountant called Chubby Rain, about aliens who come to Earth in raindrops, he knows he's onto a winner. All he needs is the biggest star in the world, Kit Ramsey (Murphy).

Naturally, Ramsey rejects the script, but Bowfinger goes ahead anyway, shooting the film by getting his posse of actors to walk up to Ramsey on the street and start saying their lines. Ramsey is not only the biggest film star in the world, but also one of the most paranoid, especially about aliens coming to get him, and these encounters with strangers sprouting alien nonsense has him running scared. When Ramsey retreats into a cult-like organisation called MindHead, Bowfinger needs a replacement. He finds one in Jiff (also played by Murphy), a bespectacled Kit Ramsey look-alike with braces. Will Bowfinger be able to finish his film?

The script for Bowfinger was written by Martin himself, and is pretty much a satire on how Hollywood gets a movie made, much like his previous L.A. Story was a satire on the superficiality of Los Angeles. While very funny in parts, especially in scenes involving Jiff, the film doesn't quite fulfil its potential. Some of the jabs at Hollywood are spot-on, but because we know or have heard about such things going on before, they raise little more than a smile. Martin is adequate as the conniving but earnest Bowfinger, but it is Murphy who is the film's shining star. He is very good as the paranoid Kit Ramsey, and even better as Jiff, who wants nothing more than to run errands. It is the best work Murphy has done in a long while. The supporting cast includes Baranski (from The Birdcage) as a veteran actress, Graham (Boogie Nights) as an aspiring starlet from Ohio who is smarter than she appears to be, and Kennedy (Scream) as Bowfinger's props and equipment procurer. There is also a cameo from Robert Downey Jr as a Hollywood producer.

In the end, Bowfinger is fun, pleasant entertainment for 100 minutes, much like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, without being consistently hilarious. While not as good as Martin's best work, like L.A. Story and All of Me, it is worth seeing for Murphy alone. His scenes energise the film.

(c) Joe Wong