MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Linguini’ a Modern Screwball Comedy

Richard Shepard’s lively and amusing “The Linguini Incident” (at selected theaters) is that rarity, a contemporary screwball comedy that actually works. It brings to mind “A Fish Called Wanda” both in its off-the-wall humor and in its equally distinctive cast. Indeed, it plays as if feature debuting director Richard Shepard and his co-writer, Tamar Brott, had created each role especially for the actor who plays it.

Rosanna Arquette is without peer in playing young women who are slightly askew, often a bit klutzy, yet who are nevertheless quite perceptive. Here, Arquette’s Lucy is obsessed with becoming the female Houdini, but as an aspiring escape artist she’s still liable to end up tied in knots. That’s what happens when, dressed in ‘20s finery, she tries out a noose routine in her funky Manhattan apartment. Thankfully, the rope gives way, but she’s still in handcuffs (with another set on her ankles, and the key is out of reach).

As it happens, her predicament is made to order for her suave, somewhat mysterious English rescuer, Monte (David Bowie), who’s in desperate need of a green card, claiming that deportation means a death sentence. She’s a bit dizzy, he’s definitely shady, but it’s a sure bet that they’ll join forces. They may even fall in love, but the film is primarily concerned with Lucy’s obsession as a metaphor; Monte wants to escape to a new life as much as Lucy does. Monte may be a slippery sort, but Bowie brings to him an authentic charm.

Lucy is a waitress and Monte a bartender at one of those drop-dead, ultra-chic restaurants that Steve Martin had such fun skewering in “L.A. Story.” It’s owned by a pair of witty eccentrics, Dante (Andre Gregory) and Cecil (Buck Henry), and it’s called Dali. For the restaurant, inspired production designer Marcia Hinds took an old auto showroom and cut loose--faux marble pillars, blue skies and mountains, gigantic aquarium behind the bar, neon trim, and of course a huge melting Dali clock.

Who better than Gregory and Henry to play a pair of crazed sophisticates? And then there’s “Stranger Than Paradise’s” Eszter Balint as Lucy’s best pal, a lingerie designer who’s come up with a “self-defense bra” that has to be seen in action to be believed; Viveca Lindfors as a canny tarot card reader who tempts Lucy with “Mrs. Houdini’s wedding ring”--it can be Lucy’s for a mere five grand; Marlee Matlin as Dali’s feisty cashier; and Eloy Casados as a bitchy Dali bartender.

Shepard guides his actors as effectively as he and Brott have written for them, but he needs to develop his sense of the camera’s potential. “The Linguini Incident”--that title comes from one of Dante’s cockamamie anecdotes--moves well in its action sequences. But there are times when simple conversations are unimaginatively set up, involving a tedious cutting back and forth between each actor. However, the film never seriously lags, and Thomas Newman’s zingy score contributes crucially to giving it a sense of pace. “The Linguini Incident” (rated R for language) leaves you eager to see whatever Shepard does next.

‘The Linguini Incident’

Rosanna Arquette: Lucy

David Bowie; Monte

Eszter Balint; Vivian

Andre Gregory; Dante

Buck Henry: Cecil

An Academy Entertainment presentation in association with Rank Film Distributors and Isolar Enterprises. Director Richard Shepard. Producer Arnold Orgolini. Executive producer Richard Gagnon. Screenplay by Shepard, Tamar Brott. Cinematographer Robert Yeoman. Editor Sonya Polonski. Costumes Richard Von Ernst. Music Thomas Newman. Production design Marcia Hinds. Art director/Construction coordinator Bo Johnson. Set decorators Doug Sieck, Brian Polk. Sound David Chornow. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (for language).