ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250042
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
Following close on the high heels of "First Wives Club," "The Associate" is another comedy that casts wealthy white male heterosexuals as the source of all evil.
Unfortunately, though, they're never quite villainous enough, and their comeuppance isn't nearly as clever as it ought to be. Even so, the film's crowd-pleasing moments appeared to be a hit with one preview audience.
Laurel Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg) is the most brilliant and savvy financial expert at the Wall Street firm where she works, but her younger associate Frank (Tim Daly) is promoted ahead of her. Why? First, because he's a sneaky rat who sabotages her deals, but mostly because he's a man. Enraged, Laurel resigns and starts her own company.
But her basic problem hasn't changed. Thick-headed men refuse to take advice from a woman. The powerful industrialist Fallon (Eli Wallach) thinks her ideas are great, but, he claims, he only does business with men. Impulsively, Laurel invents a fictitious partner named Robert S. Cutty, and Fallon is hooked.
Neither writer Nick Thiel (whose script is based on the film "L'Associe) nor director Donald Petrie ("Mystic Pizza") is really interested in the mechanics of this false character - how he's created, and how Laurel and her secretary Sally (Dianne Wiest) will sustain his existence. The women simply claim that Cutty exists, and when anyone asks to see him, they say he's on a business trip to Bangkok, Paris or wherever. More could have been done with that side of the story, as it was in the similar and much funnier "Trading Places."
Then the second half of the film turns into a dumbed-down variation of "Mrs. Doubtfire." To reveal much about that part would spoil most of the best jokes.
The filmmakers virtually ignore what could have been - and should have been - the strongest angle: the relationship between Laurel and Sally. In the few important scenes they share, Whoopi Goldberg and Diane Wiest manage to generate some interesting screen chemistry. But more often the action wanders into half-baked, witless subplots that add nothing to the rest.
Given the strength of films like "Waiting to Exhale" and "First Wives," "The Associate" may well become an autumn hit. For all the flaws, it's not mean-spirited, and Whoopi Goldberg does good work, even under several pounds of makeup.
" The Associate" ** 1/2 A Hollywood Pictures release playing at the Tanglewood Mall Theatre and Valley View 6. 114 minutes. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, strong language, some sexual material.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Whoopi Goldberg stars in "The Associate." color.by CNB