ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 13, 1996               TAG: 9604150101
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT

'FLIRTING' MANAGES NOT TO BE A DISASTER

"Flirting with Disaster" is a combination road-romantic-screwball comedy that veers from neurotic Woody Allen-esque banter to smutty/clinical sexuality to unexpectedly sharp humor.

The subject is Mel Coplin's (Ben Stiller) search for his biological parents. With the birth of his own son, he feels the need to "connect with his roots." At the adoption agency, Tina Kalb (Tea Leoni) digs up the records and says that Mel and his wife, Nancy (Patricia Arquette), can arrange a visit with his folks. In fact, the agency will pay for the trip if she can go along to record the reunion in San Diego.

Mel's other parents (George Segal and Mary Tyler Moore) are not amused. Suspicious New Yorkers to the core, they're sure Mel and Nancy will be carjacked and killed as soon as they leave the city.

Naturally, nothing is as simple as it seems, but to reveal any of the developments would spoil the film. Road movies depend on surprise, and that part works well.

Writer-director David O. Russell comes up with some wonderfully witty and fresh situations. Particularly effective are Josh Brolin and Richard Jenkins as two fellow travelers who join the trio. Toward the end, Lily Tomlin and Alan Alda turn in fine performances as a couple of unreconstructed '60s survivors.

At the same time, though, almost all of the characters have an ugly, grotesque side. In some cases, it's evident in physical appearance; in others, it comes through in political or anti-Semitic attitudes. The film's preoccupation with infidelity, genitals and unorthodox erogenous zones (armpits) is equally off-putting.

When it comes to comedy, those are matters of individual taste, and what strikes one viewer as distasteful and bizarre may be hugely funny to another. Russell said in a recent interview that he took the 1970s hits "Shampoo" and "The Heartbreak Kid" as his model. It's unlikely that "Flirting with Disaster" will touch the same comic chord with today's audiences in its approach to sex, family and other relationships.

Flirting with Disaster

**

A Miramax release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 114 min. Rated R for subject matter, strong language, brief nudity, drug use.

LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Ben Stiller (right) scuffles with David Patrick Kelly in
          a scene from "Flirting with Disaster." Stiller plays a father who is
          searching for his biological parents so his son can "connect with 
          his roots."