IN THIS outrageous comedy, Steve Martin brings his unique brand of physical comedy and acerbic wit to the story of a man whose world is shaken when he encounters a woman who's not just from a different neighbourhood, but a different world.

Peter Sanderson (Martin) is a divorced, straight-laced, uptight, workaholic attorney who still loves his ex-wife (Jean Smart) and can't figure out what he did wrong to make her leave him.

However, Peter's doing his best to move on, and he's become smitten with a brainy, bombshell barrister he's been chatting with on-line. But when she comes to his house for their first face-to-face meeting, he quickly discovers she isn't refined, and isn't even a lawyer.

Instead, it's Charlene (Queen Latifah), a prison escapee who's proclaiming her innocence and wants Peter to help clear her name.

But Peter wants nothing to do with her, prompting the loud and shocking Charlene to turn Peter's perfectly ordered life upside down, jeopardising his efforts to get back with his wife and woo a billion-dollar client (Joan Plowright). As comic complications ensue, our unlikely pair have the chance to put each other's lives on higher ground if they don't end up bringing down the house.

Steve Martin signed up for Bringing Down The House because he was keen to get back to mainstream comedy. "It was outrageous the script reminded me of something from the 1980s sort of raunchy and free-wheeling. I was excited about it."

Martin found his character irresistible. "Peter Sanderson is a guy who has a very conservative lifestyle, and he's working too hard. That's driven his wife away, but he's still in love with her. So when Charlene enters his life, she turns it upside down, and ends up making him more attractive to his ex." Martin also liked the idea of performing in a riotous, over-the-top comedy after writing more cerebral comic fare, including his play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and his novella, Shopgirl. "It's just the nature of the media that when I write, it's more cerebral, but when I act in a movie, it's more physical," he says.

Martin related to Peter on a basic level. "He's a straight guy and I'm basically a straight guy. It's great, because the straighter the guy, the funnier the scenes can become. Pure comedy is about contradictory people meeting each other," he relates.

Queen Latifah, who is also an executive producer of the film, brought a different point of view to the script.

"There are a lot of controversial jokes in the film, and we'd go back and forth figuring out what was offensive, what was funny, and what was offensive but funny enough to get over-the-top," says Queen Latifah.

The actress describes her character, Charlene, as "ghetto fabulous and smart; she's just made some bad choices."

Completing the principal cast is Eugene Levy best-known for the American Pie films who plays Sanderson's eccentric law firm colleague, Howie; and Joan Plowright as Mrs Arness, the wealthy dowager client that Peter is trying to land.

Plowright liked the diversity of her character. "She's a 70-year-old, rigidly conservative battle axe who becomes a little more carefree by the end of the film," says Plowright.

Bringing Down The House producer David Hoberman, whose credits include similar outrageous comedies Ruthless People and Down And Out in Beverley Hills, says: "I'm fascinated by stories where an outsider comes into a world that seems to be on course and shakes everybody up," says "In this type of film, everybody ends up growing, but not without a lot of pain, suffering and comedy in the middle."

May 29, 2003 13:30