THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 1, 1994 TAG: 9407010072
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
THERE IS A crying need for romantic thrillers to be re-invented as well as re-created in our movie psyches. It is for this reason that I most wanted to like ``I Love Trouble,'' an obvious effort to suggest the comedic male vs. female witty babble of a Hepburn and Tracy movie.
What we get here is in no way related to the feisty Kate and Spencer. You won't get much of that class with ``I Love Trouble.'' It can't be blamed primarily on the stars. Nick Nolte works hard and Julia Roberts, at the least, has the publicity of being a star.
They, however, are stymied by a complicated mess of a script that has them playing rival Chicago reporters competing for ``the big story.''
Nolte, wearing a good deal more makeup than his leading lady, plays a superstar columnist who has the sort of palatial office that writers only occupy in movies. A train wreck occurs on a night when the other reporters are all out having a beer, and Nolte reluctantly takes the assignment. He finds cub reporter Roberts also on the scene. She's from the rival Chicago paper and she scoops him on the breaking story.
It's here that we expect bright and witty sparring. Watching this match, though, is a little like watching a twosome play Ping-Pong with two sponges. The dialogue is lame. The two revert to unethical behavior, like stealing notes, rather than anything approaching sophisticated wit.
The sparks of a newsroom like the one in ``His Girl Friday'' are much needed. The duo goes to rural Wisconsin and to Las Vegas, but the film always looks as if it was shot in a studio - particularly the elaborate set for the finale, set in a science laboratory.
The plot is so convoluted that you're likely to give up on it after a while. It's all about how a crooked chemical company has tried to push a faulty cattle hormone formula. Huh? That's my best guess through a confused and overly involved exposition that keeps trotting out new names every few minutes.
Only habitual star-watchers should even bother trying to wade through these complications. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``I Love Trouble''
Cast: Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, Marsha Mason
Director: Charles Shyer
Screenplay: Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers
MPAA rating: PG (mild language and violence, very mild)
Mal's rating: One 1/2 stars
Locations: Chesapeake Square, Greenbrier in Chesapeake, Military
Circle, R/C Maingate in Norfolk, Lynnhaven, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia
Beach
by CNB