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

DATE: SATURDAY, August 5, 1995                   TAG: 9508090007
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THERE'S NOT MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

"Something to Talk About" isn't what you'd call a really bad movie. But it isn't a really good movie either, because as written - by Callie Khouri of "Thelma and Louise" fame - it requires a pretty adept performance from the actress who plays the main character, Grace.

The movie's ABOUT Grace, and how everything is turned upside-down when she spies her husband Eddie (Dennis Quaid) with another woman. She loses faith in everything, especially herself, and can't quite regain a firm sense of who she's supposed to be.

It's not an easy emotional condition to portray, because the character is in flux, but there are many actresses who could do it.

Unfortunately, Julia Roberts isn't one of them. As usual, she relies heavily on a very limited repertoire of facial expressions. They include: 1) The big, wide toothy grin that's supposed to steal your heart; 2) The deer-caught-in-the-headlights look and 3) the jaunty "I-don't-take-any-s---" look, achieved by thrusting out the jaw, firmly clamping the lips together and throwing back the shoulders.

It's just not enough, except when it's too much. Roberts should pay attention to an actress like Gena Rowlands, who plays Grace's mother, Georgia. Rowlands summons up the entirety of Georgia's life experience as an accomodating woman with one fearful shift of her eyes.

Roberts, by contrast, must mug, throw out her elbows and toss her clothing angrily into her suitcase to convey frustration.

And then there's Robert Duvall as Grace's domineering father Wyly, a horse breeder. Roberts should have listened to the way Duvall uses his voice - and silences - to convey Wyly's power and overwhelming need to control everyone around him. He says to Grace's strong sister Emma Rae (Kyra Sedgwick) "I've just about had it with you," and the voice is calm and even, but full of the promise of violence. You just don't know what Wyly will do, and mystery is a lovely thing in a performance.

Sedgwick, who with her wide mouth looks like she could be Roberts' sister (and Rowlands' daughter), could teach Roberts a thing or two about focus. Sedgwick clamps down on Emma Rae with perfect ferocity; this sister is really angry about the way Eddie has treated Grace, and the fact that she's Wyly's daughter comes out in the punishment. (The best scene in the movie is a beautifully tight, short exchange between Duvall and Sedgwick as they pass each other on the driveway. She gives him the lowdown on Eddie's cheating, Wyly asks for confirmation, gets it, and they pound off across the gravel in their boots as if this is a piece of business they'll attend to before sundown.)

The saddest thing about Roberts gunking up this movie is that director Lasse Hallstrom had to let her do it. There's no way the intelligence behind "My Life As A Dog" could not have noticed that Roberts - the star - was acting like a black hole in the universe of his movie.

Obviously, Hallstrom had no choice. "Something to Talk About" is a star vehicle. And if it weren't for the star's gifted "family" in this movie, it would putter to a halt in the first 30 minutes.

Something To Talk About

** 1/2

A Warner Bros. release showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View 6. 1 hour and 45 min. Rated R.

by CNB