Forget for this moment the smog and the cars and the restaurant and the skating and remember only this. A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.

–Harris Telemacher, L.A. Story

There are some movies that just hit you in the right place, right way, right time.  You look back, and on paper, there’s nothing there that should make it special, but every time you rewatch the film, you get that feeling you got the first time you viewed it, and it stays with you or hours or days. You learn the lines by repetition, you find yourself whistling songs in the soundtrack that you would normally hate.

Steve Martin wrote what may be the meanest love story ever with L.A. Story.  Sure, on the surface, it’s a romantic comedy, and on that level as sickly-sweet as anything Sandra Bullock ever did (though, for all the fantasy elements, much more grounded in the way the world really works). But beneath that, it’s a love story about Los Angeles. It’s often described as a satire, but it feels more like a true tribute told through little stabs and punches in the shoulder.  Somehow, Martin and director Mick Jackson managed to fill 90 minutes with some almost cruel truisms about LA residents, yet every one of them is cut and delivered with an undercurrent of, if not respect, then at least a begrudgingly unconditional love.

Martin himself shows all off his sides here.  There’s a bit of the wacky, wild and crazy guy, some straight man, and a lot of philosophy.  And I suppose, all these years after I first saw L.A. Story at an afternoon matinee to kill some time, the philosophy is what sticks with me.

Harris: Ordinarily, I don’t like to be around interesting people because it means I have to be interesting too.
Sara: Are you saying I’m interesting?
Harris: All I’m saying is that, when I’m around you, I find myself showing off, which is the idiot’s version of being interesting.

There are some wonderfully creative concepts in the movie, as well — two in partcular make the movie completely worth watching (without spoiling them, both involve Martin and then-real-life-wife Victoria Tennant; one set around a plane, another in a garden).

Watch L.A. Story. Buy it, and rewatch it until you’ve memorized it, and then watch it some more. There’s a very real magic on display in what may be Martin’s pinnacle as a film writer, although I will apologize in advance if you find yourself whistling an Enya tune after it’s over.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGGmhmp5ds]