ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996 TAG: 9604300059
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JANET MASLIN THE NEW YORK TIMES
There's no wondering whether the screenplay for ``The Truth About Cats and Dogs'' is the work of a man or a woman: not after the writer (Audrey Wells, once a jazz disk jockey) concocts a dead-on scene at a cosmetics counter for Abby (Janeane Garofalo), the film's irresistible heroine.
Abby knows she's no raving beauty, and she also knows that's why the department store's makeup saleswoman is pulling up a big mirror for a closer look.
It took a female writer - and a nicely witty one - to appreciate the sadism in that situation, as well as seeing the tart comedy in much of what ``The Truth About Cats and Dogs'' describes.
Abby must constantly watch the world go ga-ga over Noelle (Uma Thurman), her beautiful neighbor, while Abby herself goes unnoticed.
``What's wrong, Abby?'' somebody asks her at one such moment. ``Nothing that a rooftop and an AK-47 wouldn't take care of,'' Abby replies.
Noelle stands a head taller than Abby and makes it clear that that head is virtually empty, yet this bright ``Cyrano''-derived comedy forges an easy friendship between the two women.
They are brought together by Brian (Ben Chaplin), the shy Englishman who falls in love with Abby via her radio show. Abby gives advice about pets and she does it with real sweetness, which offsets the sharp-tongued sarcasm that's also part of her role. Garofalo, in a lovely, winning performance, gives Abby lots of heart while also making defensive snappishness a big part of her charm.
Once Brian phones Abby and she boldly describes herself as tall, thin, blond and hard to miss, she has no choice but to let Noelle step into her shoes. While this leads the plot into some expected mistaken-identity tangles, it also gives Abby the chance to voice honest (if funny) outrage over having to play such games.
``If I was a guy, I think women would line up to go out with me,'' she says, and she's right.
The film is too light and conventionally entertaining to delve deeply into the implications of this, but it certainly makes its point.
``You and I together make the perfect woman,'' Noelle insists loyally one day. ``No, you and I together make the perfect political prisoner,'' Abby answers. ``What we really do well is act self-righteous and starve.''
The film, directed with steady laughs and disarming comic finesse by Michael Lehmann (whose ``Heathers'' and ``Hudson Hawk'' were hardly this blithe), offers a lot more in the same vein.
Thurman tends to play dumb with a broad just-kidding aspect to her performance, but she's buoyantly amusing anyhow, even when cruelly satirizing the intelligence of beautiful models. Ms. Thurman's Noelle says ``Simon somebody'' when she means Simone de Beauvoir and ``that bubble thing in Arizona'' when she means biosphere.
Also thoroughly charming is Chaplin, whose role involves playing dumber than anybody in the film. (And that includes his dog, who's a scene-stealing delight.) The long sequence involving phone sex between Brian and the real Abby turns out to be one of the more successful love scenes in recent memory, because the actors play it so affectingly and because it lets Garofalo end the film with yet another memorable zinger.
``The Truth About Cats and Dogs'' even works real pathos into the sparks that arise between Brian and Noelle, whom Brian reasonably supposes is the woman he loves. As these two begin falling for each other, Garofalo shows a look of resignation that's truly and unexpectedly heartbreaking. And that shows the audience why this quick-witted romantic comedy is secretly much tougher than it looks.
The Truth About Cats and Dogs
A 20th Century Fox release showing at Tanglewood Mall. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations and profanity. 96 mins.|
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Uma Thurman and Janeane Garofalo star in ``The Truthby CNBAbout Cats and Dogs.''