The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 119

The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution WEEKEND PREVIEW a Friday, February 3, 1995 P9 BOYS ON THE SIDE mod Endearing trio is in Oscar winner's league By Eleanor Ringel FILM EDITOR i ii i iw mi 1 1 hph -itHPfcJ urn (i 'iWltluHlJi This list includes smaller-scale and movies. 1 1 KEEP IN MIND his movie puts Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Mary-Louise Parker smack in the middle of a highly enter taining New Age weepie. The ads may. suggest "Thelma and Louise," with their on-the-road ambience and Whoopi Goldberg's crack about "not driving off a cliff with you two," but the true model for "Boys on the Side" is the early '80s Oscar winner "Terms' of Endearment." Only this is the '90s version, with some radically different ideas of what it means to be a family, as i well as such i 1 rv 9: 'T 15'' "Boys on the Side" Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Mary-Louise Parker. Directed by Herbert Ross.

Rated for language and adult themes. At metro theaters. Ratings range from one to four Stan. now-familiar talk-show fodder as lesbian-. ism, AIDS and single motherhood.

Jane (Goldberg) is a Manhattan club singer who badly needs a change of scene. She answers a ride-share ad placed by Robin (Parker), a termi "Summertime" Not rated Katharine Hepburn plays the spinster who basks in the charms of Venice and the love of local Rosano Brazzi in this 1955 winner from David Lean. The first in the High Museum of Art's "Love and Death in Venice" series. 8 tonight $5. Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St N.E.

733-4570. "Woman in the Dunes" Not rated An entomologist in the desert find himself trapped with a woman who lives in a pit. Japanese classic from 1964 is part of the High's "Dream Time" series. 8p.m. Saturday.

$5. Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E. 733-4570. i WEEKDAY SCREENINGS "Gandy Dancers: The Last of the Southern Black Railroad Crews" Not rated The Spruill Center for the Arts begins a four-week, four-film series celebrating Black History Month with this engaging documentary about the crews that straightened railroad ties working to the rhythm of chanted verse.

Presented by co-directorproducer Maggie Holzberg. 7 p.m. Monday. Free. Dunwoody Library's Williams Room, S339 Chamblee Dunwoody Road.

394-3447. "Ferryman Maria" Not rated The Goethe-Institut Atlanta continues its Third Reich film series "The Ministry of Illusion" with this 1936 remnant of black-and-white expressionism. It's the tale of a woman waging battle with a mysterious stranger for the life of the man she loves. 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Free. Goethe-Institut Atlanta, Colony Square (Plaza Level), 1197 Peachtree St N.E. 892-2388. Second Annual LesbianGayBisexual Film Festi-. val Not rated Emory University's Office of LesbianGayBisexual Life presents three nights of programming.

Thurs- day's bill includes "Carmelita Tropicana," "The Love Thang Trilogy," "Cruel" and Is for the Way You i Look." 7 p.m. Thursday. Free. White Hall, Room 112, 2: Emory University. 727-0272.

Steve Murray SUZANNE HANOVER Monarchy Enterprises No matter how the ads come across, Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore remind viewers more of 'Terms of Endearment" than "Thelma and Louise." 'Terms of Endearment," 90s-style. That's meant as a compliment. nally perky real estate agent who's driving cross-country. Director Herbert Ross is a pro who knows how to handle actors. Goldberg's trademark acid irony is beautifully balanced by Parker's ardent good-girlisms (her part is almost a repeat of her role in "Fried Green but she makes it fresh and human).

Meanwhile, Barrymore is scene-stealing perfection as a good-hearted tart. "Boys on the Side" isn't a profound film or even, given the TV-movie nature of its "predicaments," an especially risky one. But it's solidly endearing in terms of emotion, humor and character. The two couldn't be more different Jane is an African-American lesbian with a raised-eyebrow take oft life. Robin is white-bread and wide-eyed, someone who enjoys Carpenters sing-alongs.

But they bond en route when they rescue Jane's old friend Holly (Barrymore) from her abusive druggie boyfriend. Now it's three for the road for a while. The trip ends prematurely in Tucson when reality in the form of a deadly illness and an impossi- ble-to-ignore pregnancy catches up with the trio. So they set up housekeeping together and soon ere- ate an unorthodox extended family that recalls Percy Adlon's gloriously eccentric "Bagdad Cafe." Best known for his Neil Simon adaptations, di-rector Herbert Ross isn't exactly a cutting-edge kind of guy. But he's a pro through and through.

More importantly, he knows how to handle actors and he's willing to take the material for what it is: a hip tear-jerker, as agile as it is blubbery. It's no accident: The soundtrack of "Boys on the Side" has no boys at all. II 1S "Not To Be Missed' Honor RlnmL AduA IoumlComtitutkn WON 42nd STREET I A FILM BY LOUIS MALLE SONY HCTVHB3 CLASSICT be mim nwiaii sis 'mih 'Ms 'mm I nun ruu liiu UiSJCSn EZ.ZZ2 "Two Magnihcent Performances By Ge You And Gong Ll" -Cuts Juki, THE NEW YORK TIMES TLo live lit EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT NOW PLAYING TODAY'S SHOWTIMES: 7:00 8:40 3S8IKDM0NHD.ail-l934 3 1 1 1 "12 Nigel Hawthorne Qves A Tour De Force Performance buarlting4 THE ATLANTA CONSniUTION "SUPERB! Nigel Haw thome Qves A Stunning Mercurial Display Of Wit, Pathos And Fiery Emotion. Director Nicholas Hytner Is Prodigiously Talented." nlMMta, THE NEW YORK TIMES Vs'" 9 ill SilfT i 1 1 i THE MADNESS OF KING GEOBijt tie huh Mil mmmwm ran nuo ni i cua uu nucnmiiimai umtm iilm mpmi ui sou "ntcuiRsvuxntir utmiMn Dror eiivn i BnrarrmiinT jk eeoree romM ts urn thompsm jfa HMXERSMl. TOOTS 5f HBn PEACHTREE RD NE 7730 MOUTH pn kit of 77t CHECK USTINQ8 OH CAU.

THEATRES FOR SHOWTIMES. NO PASSES. 872-6100 EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT NOW PLAYING 5:30 1:00 10:30 nUtSSS 8164262 8164262 8164262 rHimpuuMAu WtTiT8ox(iffiaiinMmtvm.