Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore
Director: Herbert Ross
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Steven Reuther, and Herbert Ross
Screenplay: Don Roos
Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin
Music: David Newman
U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers
Boys on the Side is a curious concoction: a mixture of road film and female buddy picture that comes across as a primer in piecing together cliches. The movie is generally entertaining, if only because the three primary characters capture the audience's sympathy, but the story doesn't contain much honest drama. All the big emotional moments here are either shamelessly manipulative or disappointingly trite.
With antecedents like Thelma and Louise, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Steel Magnolias, Boys on the Side is the latest film to look beneath the surface of women's bonding. Oddly, considering the topic, every major behind-the- scenes player is a man -- director, writer, cinematographer, and producers. It makes you wonder just what insight the movie offers. Indeed, there aren't any unexpected revelations. Boys on the Side has an affinity for observing the obvious.
Each of the three main characters represents a different stereotype. Whoopi Goldberg's Jane is a lesbian musician afflicted with a case of unrequited love for a straight woman. Mary Louise- Parker is Robin, a repressed real estate salesperson who loves Carpenter songs, cries during The Way We Were, and is fastidious about hygiene and cleanliness. Drew Barrymore's Holly is a blond ditz with a voracious sexual appetite and a talent for picking the wrong sorts of men.
After Jane answers Robin's newspaper ad for a cross-country driving companion, the two embark on a trek from New York to California. Along the way, they stop in Pittsburgh to pick up Holly, an old friend of Jane's who is looking for a way out of a relationship with a violent boyfriend. Her manner of escape is a lot more problematic than she expects, and the trip turns into a flight from the law. The women never reach the West Coast, however, because when Robin is hospitalized for pneumonia in Tucson, her companions decide to put down roots.
Except in one aspect, Boys on the Side is relatively shallow. It's decent mass consumption entertainment, but there's not much in the way of meat. The ending is too predictable, which makes director Herbert Ross' heavy-handedness during the concluding fifteen minutes especially unwelcome. This is what happens when film makers try too hard to make everyone reach for a Kleenex -- the emotional response becomes decidedly flat.
The single most welcome element of Boys on the Side is the development of the relationship between Jane and Robin. Nothing about how these two relate to each other is straightforward. In part, the strength of the interaction is due to finely-tuned performances by Mary-Louise Parker and Whoopi Goldberg. Parker excels once again as one of life's undertrodden, and Goldberg achieves a certain level of subtlety by submerging her own larger-than-life personality. For the first time in a long string of films, we feel like we're watching a legitimate character, not just the actress. Drew Barrymore shows some improvement in the acting department, but her role ultimately becomes secondary, and her story is the least interesting.
Boys on the Side is engaging, but that's primarily because it fits the bill for a light,
undemanding distraction. There are a few memorable scenes, including a couple of hilarious turns
involving salty language, and a nicely-explored friendship, but distinguishing characteristics are at
a premium. As the title suggests, this film lacks the substance of a main course. Instead, it whets
the appetite without ever satisfying the real hunger.
© 1995 James Berardinelli