Review – Pennies from Heaven

This was a risky move for Steve Martin at the height of his success, and I can see why it didn’t pay off for him. Fans of his goofy routines from Saturday Night Live and The Jerk naturally rejected this arty, not-at-all-funny production. Even those of us willing to give him a little room to branch out creatively must still recognize that this effort is far too stiff and theatrical. However, the concept is great. Martin plays a Depression-era sheet music salesman who can’t stand his go-nowhere job and his emotionally unavailable wife. He longs for a life more in tune with the frantically sunny lyrics of the era’s popular music. Martin brings this out by interrupting the straight-faced drama with fantasy musical numbers in which the actors lip-sync to the original recordings. Though the execution is weak in spots, the idea alone is actually enough to make this worth a look. Worth seeing