Housesitter [DVD] [1992]

Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn star in this hilarious romantic comedy about the consequences of "stretching" the truth. When architect Newton Davis' girlfriend Becky (Dana Delany) turns down his marriage proposal, his newly-built dream house suddenly becomes nothing more than an empty monument to her rejection. That is, until a chance encounter with Gwen (Hawn) turns his life upside-down. Intrigued by Newton's story, Gwen visits the house and decides to move in on her own. Resourceful and creative, Gwen is soon fixing up the house and charming Newton's family and neighbors and all the while passing herself off as his new wife. Gwen even befriends Becky, who begins to see a Newton she never knew existed. Horrified at the deception yet unable to stop it, Newton finds himself playing along with her preposterous stories, her attempts at reconciling differences within the family and her campaign for his promotion at work. Finally, he convinces Gwen to fabricate their "divorce" so he can still get married to Becky until he has a change of heart. It's a delightful, warmhearted and intelligent comedy from director Frank Oz.

In this romantic comedy from director Frank Oz, Steve Martin plays Boston architect Newton Davis, an impulsive dreamer who builds a bucolic dream home for his girlfriend (Dana Delany) as a means of proposing to her -- only she turns him down. Three months later, the depressed Davis meets a waitress who calls herself Gwen (Goldie Hawn), though pretending to be Hungarian proves to be only the first of her many deceptions. Davis has a one-night stand with Gwen during which he tells her the sad story of the house, which remains unoccupied just outside the city in his hometown of Dobbs Mills, because he can't bear to sell it. Following what seems to be a familiar path for this con artist, Gwen locates the house, figuring she can take up residence without anyone noticing. During a trip to the local grocery, she ends up telling the proprietor she's Davis' wife while trying to charge her purchases to his account. When she offers the same story to a local furniture dealer (Donald Moffat), unaware he's Davis' father, it triggers a string of fabrications in which the shocked Davis unwittingly becomes a co-conspirator. Seeing an opportunity of his own, Davis allows Gwen to stay in the house and agrees to go along with her story in hopes of winning back his jealous ex. Of course, this also necessitates outlandish lie upon outlandish lie, leaving the whole enterprise forever on the verge of collapse.