ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610150055
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL E. HILL THE WASHINGTON POST
Television and one of the nation's more divisive subjects collide Sunday night in an HBO movie that is as challenging as its topic.
``If These Walls Could Talk'' (airing at 9 p.m.) is a rather oddly constructed dramatic trilogy that takes place, for no apparent reason, in the same house in three different decades, with the dramas involving three sets of unrelated people.
What they have in common besides the house is that each is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy.
In Part 1, set in the 1950s, Demi Moore is a widowed nurse grappling with her pregnancy. Moore also executive-produced this project. In the second part, during the '70s, Sissy Spacek plays a wife and mother who is resuming her long-deferred education when she becomes pregnant. Cher directs the final segment and plays a modern-day doctor who reports to work at an abortion clinic wearing a bullet-proof vest. Anne Heche, as a student pregnant by a professor, turns to her.
It is a frank movie, at times absolutely wrenching to watch, the sort of fare you rarely see on the broadcast networks, elsewhere on cable or in feature films.
``It won't sell tickets, you can't put it on [network] TV, it won't get past censors and HBO is the only place with the guts'' to run such a movie, said Cher. ``In a strange way, you've seen people killed on TV, but nothing so raw.
``I don't usually respect authority,'' she said, ``but I really respect what HBO did. The only argument we had was about how loud the suction machine should be'' in a scene in which her character performs an abortion. ``That sound really made focus groups wince.''
But surely that won't be a viewer's only uneasy moment. There's a lot to make you cringe and a lot to talk about later.
The movie - dotted with acting cameos and produced by HBO NYC, a new HBO division formed to give both new and established talent a chance to do innovative work - offers interesting sketches of its three decades.
In the '50s story, the word ``abortion'' can barely be spoken aloud. Shame and guilt engulf Moore's character's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Spacek's '70s woman is very open with her family and a friend (Joanna Gleason) who's been there. In the '90s segment, people are still talking, but they are also taking action.
In one of the segments the dilemma is decided with deliberation and in a spirit of sacrifice. In the other two there are no quiet resolutions.
There are even eerie, if only incidental, parallels between the '50s and '90s segments. The technique used by the drive-by abortionist in Part 1 resembles Cher's character's method in Part 3. But the environments couldn't be more diverse.
The whole production is refreshingly free of the catch phrases that are so much a part of the contemporary debate.
``When we hear on the news from politicians, the words spoken are dry, without any kind of emotion,'' said Cher. ``This film is about three women with the problem. What I was trying to do is bring you close to the people and not just the terms, not just `pro-choice,' `abortion,' `pro-life.' This is like a lose-lose situation - sometimes you lose your life, and sometimes you lose your peace of mind.''
Cher, mother of children 27 and 20 years old, acknowledges having wrestled with the abortion question. At a time when she didn't know she was pregnant, she recalled, she underwent a series of radiation treatments without protective covering of her abdomen. ``I made a choice not to have a child, because I was too frightened. And that was the choice I made. Every woman has a story.''
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Demi Moore (from left), Cher and Sissy Spacek star inby CNB``If These Walls Could Talk,'' a dramatic movie about three women
dealing with unplanned pregnancies. color.