ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 4, 1996 TAG: 9605070029
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: JAY BOYAR ORLANDO SENTINEL
Sharon Stone behind bars? This could have been fun, but it's not.
In the new prison picture called ``Last Dance,'' Stone ignores her ``basic instincts'' and takes the high road - or, at least, the solemn one. Cast as death-row inmate Cindy Liggett, she's essentially a female version of the trashy Southern prisoner that Sean Penn played so brilliantly in the recent ``Dead Man Walking.''
Rob Morrow has the other role - the Susan Sarandon role, that is. As Rick Hayes, an attorney for the state's clemency board, he's the responsible person on the outside who makes the prisoner's case his mission.
A critique of capital punishment, the film also concerns the relationship of these two people.
``Last Dance'' isn't a very good movie, but its timing is even worse. The film might have looked somewhat better than it does had it opened several months before ``Dead Man Walking'' rather than several months after.
Given the similarities of the plots, comparisons are inevitable - and not especially flattering to the new film. Everything ``Dead Man Walking'' did the hard, original way, ``Last Dance'' does the easy, cliched way.
``Last Dance,'' in other words, is just the sort of movie that I was afraid that ``Dead Man Walking'' would be before I saw it.
One thing that made the earlier film so fascinating was the subtlety with which it followed the path to redemption taken by Matthew Poncelet (Penn), with the help of Sister Helen Prejean (Sarandon).
Poncelet was surly and suspicious at first, and so is Liggett in ``Last Dance.'' But Stone's character has already found redemption by the time Hayes comes to see her.
A dozen years in prison have turned her into a good person - and, Lord help us, into an artist.
All the lawyer has to do is persuade her to cooperate in his efforts to get the governor to grant clemency. Of course, this is much less interesting - especially since her decision to cooperate seems to come out of nowhere.
But then how could a film about filing a report compare with one about saving a soul?
``Dead Man Walking'' delved deeply into the emotional texture of the prisoner's case by having the nun encounter people connected with it and him. Each of these characters was vividly drawn, and all of them have stayed with me.
``Last Dance,'' however, focuses on the people the attorney meets as he tries to steer his clemency report (and, later, an appeal) through the government bureaucracy. Only one of these supporting characters even comes close to being memorable - Hayes' boss, played in an effectively lived-in fashion by Randy Quaid.
``Last Dance'' was directed by Bruce Beresford, the Australian who has made such hits as ``Driving Miss Daisy'' and ``Tender Mercies'' and such turkeys as ``King David'' and ``Her Alibi.'' Beresford is an accomplished craftsman who tends to be at the mercy of the material he's working with.
In ``Last Dance,'' the uninspired script by Ron Koslow (``Into the Night'') lets him - and us - down.
Last Dance **
A Touchstone Pictures release playing at Salem Valley 8 and Tanglewood Mall. Rated R.
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Sharon Stone plays death-row inmate Cindy Liggett inby CNB``Last Dance.''