THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605100065
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
COLOR HER HAIR mousy brown, put her in prison drab and you still have Sharon Stone.
I, for one, am not complaining. Stone has almost single-handedly carried on the tradition of glamour diva in a Hollywood running amok with so-called ``actresses'' who do things like wash the supper dishes. She, at least, is usually fun, and she acted as if she were a star long before she actually was one.
There's no fun to be had, though, in ``Last Dance,'' her new effort to prove that she should be taken seriously. After a deserved Oscar nomination for ``Casino'' (in which she was another one of those loose women in a tight dress), she acts all over the place here.
She plays Cindy Liggett, a convicted murderer in an unnamed Southern state who is about to run out of appeals. The governor (Australian Jack Thompson of ``Breaker Morant'') won't pardon her. There is no question that she's guilty, but the movie clearly implies that capital punishment is unthinkable.
Cindy acts tough, but she's actually a model prisoner. She's learned to be an ``artist,'' and she writes letters for the less literate girls on Death Row.
This sentimental melodrama would be synthetic on its own terms, but it suffers further because it was released just months after the admirable ``Dead Man Walking,'' in which all the pitfalls of such a capital-punishment tirade were deftly avoided.
No one can blame Stone. She works hard and does, indeed, suggest that she's to be taken seriously as an actor. She sticks with a ``poor white trash'' accent all the way. It sounds a bit much, but at least it's consistent.
She gets little help from the script and even less from her co-star, the pallid Rob Morrow (``Quiz Show'' and TV's ``Northern Exposure''), who is no match for her spirit. He plays a rich kid who has specialized in partying and spending Daddy's money. Assigned the routine job of clemency officer, he gets emotionally involved with Cindy.
Morrow is simply not up to playing an obsessed lawyer with a mission. Someone seems intent upon encouraging his switch from the small screen. They have their work cut out for them.
Randy Quaid is lively as Morrow's boss. Peter Gallagher is slippery as Morrow's more successful and stable brother.
As for that final walk, Susan Hayward did it with a good deal more vigor in ``I Want to Live.''
Under the direction of Bruce Beresford, ``Last Dance'' isn't content to be just a melodrama. It wants to have social consciousness but, at the same time, be a slick ticket seller. It's difficult to have it both ways. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Last Dance''
Cast: Sharon Stone, Rob Morrow, Randy Quaid
Director: Bruce Beresford
MPAA rating: R (violence, language)
Mal's rating: * 1/2
Locations: Cinemark, Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Circle 4 in
Norfolk; Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB