The Tall Guy 1989

Dexter King Jeff Goldblum is an American actor and the narrator of his own life, living in London’s Camden Town with his landlady, a woman described as educated, charming, and rather性的 unreliable—someone who keeps life interesting while their relationship stays strictly platonical. He has just wrapped up his sixth year playing “The Tall Guy”, the straight man in a two‑person, long‑running comedy revue led by his volatile landlord and on‑stage foil, Ron Anderson Rowan Atkinson.

A case of chronic hay fever sends him to a doctor, and there Dexter meets Kate Emma Thompson, a nurse who instantly captivates him. What starts as a spark mutates quickly into something deeper, and Dexter finds himself falling in love with her. Soon after this chance encounter, his professional world starts to crumble: he is fired by Ron, losing not only a job but a steady foothold in the world he’s built around performing.

The professional shake‑up opens a path to a satirical dream project. Dexter lands the title role in a new Royal Shakespeare Company musical based on The Elephant Man. The show, a sharp and flashy send‑up of the glamour and melodrama of Broadway and pop spectacle, features a song titled “He’s Packing His Trunk” and a finale whose punchline lands with a wink and a grin: > Somewhere up in heaven there’s an angel with big ears!

Rehearsals reveal trouble offstage as Dexter succumbs to the advances of a married co‑star, a complication that threatens both his personal life and his ascent on the professional stage. On opening night, Kate notices the suspicious clues and, with quiet resolve, decides to leave Dexter, setting the scene for a dramatic rift and a test of his loyalties.

Then a televised award show moment—hinting that Ron may be dating Kate—sparks a desperate, last‑ditch gambit. Dexter briefly sacrifices the stability he has found in Elephant! by giving up the role just before the curtain rises, enlisting Ron’s (unwitting) help in a chaotic ploy: Dexter ties him up in his dressing room and steals his car. The improvised rescue attempt pivots the story into a hospital ward, where Dexter must confront the consequences of his actions and the fate of his relationship with Kate.

In the end, the couple faces the crisis with a renewed sense of possibility: Kate agrees to give their relationship another chance, signaling a fragile but hopeful reconciliation and a willingness to navigate the showbiz‑tinged storm together. The film builds its humor and heart through Dexter’s vivid narration, the glitzy backstage world, and the careful, sometimes comic, reconstruction of trust between two people who love the theatre as much as they love each other.