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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994                   TAG: 9407140009
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

'SIRENS' SIZZLES BUT WON'T PLEASE EVERYONE

Of course, it's all handled tastefully in a ``Masterpiece Theatre'' manner, with blatant symbolism throughout, period details and smooth British and Australian accents. For comparative purposes, ``Sirens'' is a more voluptuous ``Enchanted April.''

The two films are built on a strong sense of place - both were filmed on the actual locations where the action is set - and an atmosphere of exotic unreality.

Writer/director John Duigan's ``Sirens'' is a fiction based on a real character, Australian painter Norman Lindsay (Sam Neill). He has scandalized the clergy and the art world of the 1930s with his etching, ``The Crucified Venus.'' The Archbishop of Sydney asks young Rev. Anthony Campion (Hugh Grant) to visit Lindsay at his mountaintop studio and persuade him to withdraw the piece from an exhibition.

Anthony and his new wife, Estella (Tara Fitzgerald), en route to their first parish, agree to the plan. But instead of a short visit, they find themselves spending more time at Springwood. That's the idyllic house and surrounding gardens where Lindsay lives with his wife Rose (Pamela Rabe) and models Sheela (swimsuit diva Elle Macpherson), Prue (Kate Fischer) and Giddy (Portia De Rossi).

While the artist and the pastor engage in the endless debate between the secular and the spiritual, the models - a languorous and largely uninhibited trio - introduce Estella to a new world of the senses.

Her journey of discovery is the real story of the film. Much of it is beautifully told. Other parts seem forced, and upset the careful chemistry of mood Duigan is trying to create. He ran into similar problems with ``Wide Sargasso Sea.'' ``Sirens'' is much better than that soft-core confusion, but it's not up to Duigan's best work, ``The Year My Voice Broke'' and ``Flirting.''

Obviously, this material is not for everyone. Religiously conservative moviegoers will find that it challenges their beliefs and philosophical assumptions. Those looking for a pure guilty pleasure may chafe at the deliberate pace and the emphasis on setting.

But if you're in the mood for full-bodied, unashamed eroticism, these ``Sirens'' will engage your interests.

Sirens **8

A Miramax release playing at The Grandin Theatre. 92 min. Rated R for nudity, sexual activity, bawdy dialogue, a bit more nudity.