ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610080035
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
Strange days these are indeed when a movie is remarkable for being honest and realistic - not brutally so, but with a more honorable agenda: to get it right.
"Walking and Talking" is one of these rare creatures, a movie that doesn't make people look better or worse than they are and, still, makes one unusually satisfied just to be human.
The regular human beings in this story - written by the film's director, Nicole Holofcener - are flawed in pretty normal ways. Amelia (Catherine Keener) wants too much from people, so finds herself more often than not alone with her cat and a handful of videos. Laura (Anne Heche) is a therapist, a her patients.
Then there are the men: Laura's kind, too-solicitous fiance, Frank (Todd Field); Amelia's ex-boyfriend, porno enthusiast Andrew (Liev Schrieber); and Laura's brief love interest, horror film junkie Bill (Kevin Corrigan).
Amelia and Laura are best friends from childhood and struggling to renegotiate their relationship as Laura's wedding day approaches. The difficulty is that Amelia is feeling the cumulative effect of too many disappointing relationships just as Laura is beginning to take hers for granted. What looks good to Amelia from her side of the fence feels like routine to Laura, who increasingly just lets the answering machine pick up calls from Amelia.
Frank is frustrated, designing ugly cocktail rings for a discount department store. Andrew is carrying on a very expensive, erotic telephone relationship with a woman across the country.
It's all a little "Friends"-like, but without the perfect hair, cutie-pie behavior and silly scenarios. These people actually go to their jobs, skip a shampoo from time to time and have real fights that don't involve ripping up each other's favorite clothes.
What makes it worth seeing are those moments of beauty that just seem to happen, the way they do in real life: with so much surprise that they inspire something like faith in being or, at the very least, pleasant anticipation of life's next, unpredictable turn.
Walking and Talking *** 1/2
A Miramax Films release showing at The Grandin Theatre. Rated R for adult situations and profanity. 86 minutes.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: "Walking and Talking" stars (from left) Liev Schreiber,by CNBCatherine Keener, Todd Field and Anne Heche.