Freeway Signs and the Weather

"A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true" - Steve Martin, L.A. Story

When I was in college, the Steve Martin film L.A. Story held real, deep resonance for me. It was filled with offbeat, absurd humor, but every few minutes, Martin would slow everything down to a crawl and inject the story with an almost mystical sentiment. It comes across as completely unnatural - even in the context of such fourth-wall breaking film - but it's so intensely felt, earnest and, hell... honest, that it wins you over. It's a movie where a sooth-saying traffic sign can tell Martin that the weather will change his life twice, and when it does, it's utterly predictable, but so comfortable, a warm thought of the way the world should operate. The way that we all believe it should. On the best of days, we believe that it's the way the world could.

My appreciation of the film spanned my college years, before I even moved to Los Angeles. And I honestly don't think I've watched it in the entire 13 years I've lived in this particular, unique cement jungle. Sure, some jokes stood up to memory, such as Martin driving his car 20 feet to a next door neighbor's house, but there are so many throwaway LA moments that a Midwestern kid would never have appreciated prior to living here, like Martin's frustration at his girlfriend pretentiously stalling for 20 minutes of before a luncheon, just so they wouldn't be on time... and then still being the first ones there. Perfect. Or Richard Grant commenting that he lives in the Valley, and even the valets snicker mercilously at him.

After so many years, I introduced the film to a friend tonight (we had intended to watch "The Shining" on Blu-Ray, another nostalgia moment, but the disc he brought was bad). He's French, and has lived in Los Angeles for 5 years, and even though the movie is quite dated in many ways, the humor is still dead-on, and the observations about LA life hasn't really changed all that much. He loved it.

It's still the romantic yearning of the piece that resonates with me, and now makes me sad in many ways. "Why do we never notice the moment when love begins, but know exactly the moment that love ends?", Martin asks at the final turning point. It's a poignant line, and for Martin in his mid-40s, a happily married superstar, it was an easy pedastal to play artistic muse from. But shortly after L.A. Story, Martin divorced his co-star, and developed something of a reputation for liking women on the younger end of the spectrum. The SanDeE* types, perhaps. I even have a friend who was propositioned, of sorts, by Martin, who fled when she learned she was married. A very, very amusing anecdote for another time...

Martin's a true romantic. An erudite sensualist, and it's those elements that I try to hold onto every time I see him painfully cashing in another dreadful paycheck (he should play golf with DeNiro and Pacino, all laughing their asses off on how they've worked the system). Yet here he is, now in his 60s, with more money than I'm sure he could know what to do with, but he's still the picture of one of his most beautiful lines: "A kiss may not be the truth, but it's what we wish were true". That's so beautiful and sad, and I can't help but be a little pissed and wonder that if he can't get it right, is this the future staring at the rest of us? When you find yourself alone in your thirties, or forties, or fifties... in Los Angeles (a very, very important detail), is this the more likely fate than not?

Steve Martin had a magical freeway sign to point his way, and even the weather and the heavens turned to be on his side, and even then he just barely made it work. And in that great line, there's the cautious sadness in it - what if that kiss isn't true, like you want to believe? I'd like to presume that Martin wrote that film as a result of his love and adoration for the lovely co-star. It sure reads that way. And then they divorced. So if a kiss really can be truth, it suggests something even more ominous: truth is transitory and fleeting. So even if you find truth, you may not be able to understand it or hold onto it for long.

But Martin keeps trying (hell, anyone seen "Shopgirl"?). Best of luck, Mr. Martin... and maybe freeway signs and the weather will have pity on the rest of us.