Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 23, 1991                   TAG: 9102230391
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: E-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THEY COULD'VE SAID IT IN MUCH LESS TIME

Kevin Bacon plays Dan, a young man who has an old-timey and romantic attitude toward his profession - journalism.

Elizabeth Perkins plays Lorie, a newsroom neighbor with a more pragmatic approach. As the movie begins, she's covering weddings and Dan's writing obits and both share a mutual antagonism that's the foundation of hundreds of Hollywood love stories. When a column slot opens up, Dan and Lorie - much to their distaste - wind up sharing it. He takes one viewpoint, she takes the other and love blossoms. Before long, they're plying the same gimmick on television. Gimmick is the operative word here.

Ken Kwapis directs the first half from Dan's point of view. Marisa Silver directs the second half from Lorie's point of view. Unfortunately, this means a duplication of the same scenes with minor variations and it extends the movie's length to two hours.

Apparently, the movie wants to be an old-style romance and it very nearly succeeds as it follows the confrontational Nick and Lorie through the various stages of their relationship and profession. Bacon and Perkins are appealing and Perkins gets a chance to light up the screen with her intelligence like never before.

But the flashbacks, the visual tricks and the attempts to convey a male and female viewpoint of the same situations inhibit the story's forward motion. The movie meanders needlessly. What should have been a breezy 90 minutes of romantic comedy drags on for at least 30 minutes too much.

`He Said, She Said' A Paramount picture at Tanglewood Mall Cinema (989-6165). Rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual situations and language.