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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994                   TAG: 9402080080
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`ANYTHING' NEEDS THE MUSIC

One of the main characters, for example, is Burke Adler (Albert Brooks), a film producer whose big-budget action picture is doing so poorly with test audiences that it's been trimmed down to 78 minutes. At one stage in its development, "I'll Do Anything" was a big-budget musical with songs and production numbers. Those did so poorly with test audiences that they were removed.

Then there's the big finish. It's not giving anything away to reveal that the film ends with an attempt to manipulate the audience's emotions by showing an actor who's attempting to manipulate another audience's emotions. In other words, Brooks is telling us that the actor's craft is a lie while, at the same time, asking us to believe the lie.

Because the film operates on so many levels of illusion and illusions of illusion, it's almost impossible to become emotionally involved in it. If the story had been told in the less realistic context of a musical, where disbelief should be more easily suspended, that trickiness might have been wonderful. But the test audiences told the studio we wouldn't like that.

In any case, "I'll Do Anything" still contains some wonderful moments involving complex, believable characters.

Matt Hobbs (Nick Nolte) is a struggling character actor whose need to work becomes even more pressing when his 6-year-old daughter Jeannie (Whittni Wright) comes to live with him. To say that she's a willful child is putting is much too mildly. A combination of Shirley Temple and Godzilla is closer to the mark.

At the same time, Matt has begun a relationship with Cathy Breslow (Joely Richardson), a knock-out who works in Burke Adler's development department. But the real power in Adler's studio is Nan Mulhanney (Julie Kavner), a researcher who cannot lie. Her curious truthfulness has caused Adler to fall in love with her. Or has he? Is he so wrapped up in his projects that he can't recognize a genuine emotion, even when it's his own?

Those conflicts are at the center of this complicated film, though they're seldom addressed directly. Instead, writer-director-co-producer Brooks juggles the stories, never staying too long with any one line. That can be frustrating. The scenes between Albert Brooks and Julie Kavner are by far the most interesting.

When the focus shifts to Nolte and Joely Richardson it becomes so involved with the politics and minutia of the movie business that many viewers won't care what happens. Nolte's performance is one of his more engaging, but toward the end, he resorts to flapping about in the loose, unbuttoned shirt cuffs that have become his trite trademark. As for young Whittni Wright, she's certainly effective as a spoiled brat.

Judged against James Brooks' other work, "I'll Do Anything" does suffer. But Brooks is working on such an ambitious level that his relative failures are more interesting and enjoyable than most successes. If only it all held together better. Maybe if they put some songs in . . .

I'll Do Anything ** 1/2

A Columbia release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 115 min. Rated PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity, a little strong language.