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

DATE: FRIDAY, July 16, 1993                   TAG: 9307200074
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By IVOR DAVIS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WOMEN'S MOVIES ARE BACK IN STYLE

Bored by blood and bullets, maddened by mayhem and spaced out by special effects, women were increasingly saying "No thank you" to the Hollywood mainstream and staying home to watch television.

Finally, somebody in the film factories got the message: This summer "women's movies" are back in style.

Sure it's the season when Schwarzenegger and Stallone traditionally unveil their box-office bonanzas, but this year they're going to have a little competition from some rather unexpected corners.

First, there is "Sleepless in Seattle," which director Nora Ephron says is "a movie about love in the movies." One particular movie, in fact - "An Affair to Remember" (1957), the Cary Grant/Deborah Kerr remake of the original tearjerker "Love Affair" (1939), starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunn. Warren Beatty is currently remaking it yet again with himself and Mrs. Benning Beatty.

All the women in "Sleepless" are in love with the Grant-Kerr film. They rerun it endlessly. They know all the dialogue by heart. They fantasize that one day a Cary Grant will come into their lives.

So confident was TriStar of the film's appeal after early screenings that the company moved its release from spring to summer to compete in the big leagues. It is turning out to be the season's must-see movie.

And it's not alone out there. A cursory glance at the lineup for the next few months reveals that romance and family values are back.

In "House of Cards," which opened June 25, Kathleen Turner is a devoted mother of an autistic daughter.

There's also "The Secret Garden," scheduled to open nationwide Aug. 13. It is a classic story about an orphaned girl who moves in with her reclusive, rich uncle in Victorian England and restores Uncle's life and his walled garden to vim and vigor.

Then there's "Into the West," co-starring Gabrielle Byrne and Ellen Barkin. The film, scheduled to be released Aug. 27, is a tear-jerker set in picturesque Ireland about a father who realizes how much his children miss their late mother.

And in "Undercover Blues" Turner is back again, this time with Dennis Quaid. They play retired spies who are fighting an international arms ring while tending to their infant. It's a kind of "Bringing Up Baby" (1938) meets John Le Carre. The film is slated to open nationwide Sept. 10.

Also coming up is "For Love or Money," starring Michael J. Fox as a concierge at a swank hotel who gets big bucks from an investor to open his own inn provided he promises to keep the gentleman's mistress entertained while he is otherwise engaged. Co-starring Gabrielle Anwar ("Scent of a Woman," 1992), the film is being described as "Breakfast at Tiffany's" meets Eloise, of Plaza Hotel fame. It is scheduled for nationwide release Oct. 8.

In "Mr. Nanny," which also opens nationwide Oct. 8, Hulk Hogan - no kidding - plays nanny to two tykes trying to get a little love and attention from their workaholic father.

So why has the entire film industry apparently gone soft and mushy overnight? As US magazine described it in its summer movie roundup, "Warm and fuzzy has suddenly replaced `sex and violence' as the buzzwords at Hollywood pitch meetings."

The writing was on the wall when Mark Canton, Columbia Pictures' chief executive officer, told American film distributors earlier this year, "A movie rated PG is almost three times more likely to reach $100 million than a film rated R."

That kind of money talks - and nowhere louder than in Hollywood.

- New York Times Syndicate