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Women haveREVIEW: ‘Boys on the .Side’s’ emotional authenticity is undercut by some melodramatics, but it still packs a punch.By HENRY SHEEHANThe Orange County Registerh a perfect world, “Boys on the Side” wouldn’t overplay its hand so relentless-ly-It wouldn’t contrive at manufacturing self-consciously oddball friendships. It wouldn’t truck out every dramatic gimmick from slow death to birth in pursuit of emotional uproar. It wouldn’t force one relationship breakdown after another in its final reels, solely for the purpose of stinging out one tearful reconciliation after another.But in a perfect world, there would be more movies made about passionate friendships between women. And “Boys on the Side,” which plays several variations on themes heard in “Fried Green Tomatoes” — as well as borrowing one of its stars — is that rare thing, a film about how women can help each other in crises.Given its semi-unique status, and that it was written and directed by men, its makers may have been unusure of its potential effect. They shouldn’t haveworried; many viewers undoubtedly will be moved not just by its surface melodramatics, but by the deeper meanings that lurk,however deeply, beneath them.Whoopi Goldberg, who cannot sing a lick, stars as Jane De-Luca, a bluesy bar singer anxious to leave New York for Los Angeles and a shot at rejuvenating her career. But she needs to share a ride, and despite being put off by the somewhat prickly and priggish Robin Nickerson (Mary-Louise Parker), whomfBoys on the Side1► Stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore► Behind the scenes: Directed by Herbert Ross, written by Don Roos, produced by Arnon Milchan, Steven Reuther and Ross.► Playing: Opens today throughout Orange County.► Rating: PG-13 for some sexual situations, nudity andJanguage.► Grade: B-minus► Running time: 1 hour 57 minutesshe calls the “whitest white girl” she has ever seen, she agrees to split driving duties and a car with Robin.On their way through Pittsburgh, they stop to visit Holly (Drew Barrymore), an old friend of Jane’s who, as luck would have it, is being physically abused by her drug-dealer boyfriend when they arrive. Despite Robin’s considerable negotiating skills (she was a successful real estate agent), the three women have to subdue the violent boyfriend, tying him to a chair after Holly conks him with a baseball bat.With some judicious humor, the three are settling their cultural differences, which include Robin’s somewhat nervous acceptance of Jane’s lesbianism, when two calamities strike. First, they discover that Holly’s boyfriend has died, forcing Jane and Robin to rescue Holly from a homeward-bound bus. Then, during a Tucson rest stop, Robin collapses in a restroom coughing and retching. At a local hospital Jane gets the bad news: Robin’s short-term problem is pneumonia, long-term, it’s AIDS.To this less than midway point, the film has been a fairly eventful and funny road picture. But the tone switches as the three settle in Tucson. Jane starts a relationship with the owner of a local lesbian bar, where Robin and Holly sometime waitress. Holly,MEETING THE FAMILY: Holly (Drew Barrymore, left) introduces Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) to her new boyfriend, Abe (Matthew McConaughey), in ’Boys on the Side.' ** • • t- .who is pregnant, starts an intensely physical relationship with Abe (Michael McConaughey), a local super-straight-arrow cop, in a subplot that tends to take her out of the main action.From here, with the exception of another subplot reconciling Robin and her mother (Anita Gillette), the focus is on the deepening frienship between Robin and Jane, how it started out of convenience, quickened through necessity and ripens into one of mutual dependency and reliance.Veteran director HerbertRoss, working from Don Roos’ script, adopts an appropriately relaxed tone, emphasizing emotional nuances over pure plot movement. He zooms in on the obligations assumed and expected by a friendship so profound.It is this depth that makes therelationship so tricky, and when Jane assumes she is helping Robin by cluing the lesbian bar’s hunk bartender (James Remar) to Robin’s sexual needs and medical problems, it causes a huge rupture between the women. Robin is furious that her friend has treated her like some sort of pathetic case, a charge Jane accepts. Layers of expectations . fuel layers of anger, and it begins to look like Robin may die alone.That Robin and Jane are playing for such stakes should have provided enough emotional raw material for the film. One could almost say it provides too much. When your main characters are such extremes — a black lesbian (Whoopi, no less) and the world’s whitest white girl — you begin with a perspective problem. Introducing imminent death accentuates it. Going even further by ' allowing soapy contrivances may increase the audience’s tear flow, but it subtly undercuts the drama’s self-proclaimed humanity.The essential appeal of the three leads remains intact, for the most part, though each occasionally reverts to reflexive gesturing (eye-rolling accompanied by a two-handed thigh slap for Goldberg; a lockjaw look of disbelief for Parker; a comically provocactive hip swing for Barrymore). Most importantly, the three make their strange-bedfel-lows friendship appear utterly plausible.In doing so, they give “Boys on the Side” a core of emotional authenticity and make it a forceful, if inelegant, tribute to femalefriendship.
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Santa Ana Orange County Register
Santa Ana, California, US
Fri, Feb 03, 1995
Page 133
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