THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210038
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
AT ONE POINT in Randal Kleiser's new film, a character paraphrases the lyrics of Lesley Gore's classic song as he warbles, ``It's my party and I'll die if I want to - die if I want to. You would die too, if it happened to you.''
While markedly unsubtle, the ploy works.
An all-star cast makes ``It's My Party'' into a heartfelt and sincere comedy about death. Eric Roberts, as an HIV-positive man, learns that within days he will fade to the mental level of a vegetable. He chooses to die with dignity and invites his friends for a two-day ``going away'' party.
The set-up is an obvious one, designed to produce tears as well as laughter, yet audiences are persuaded to go along with the manipulation.
Essentially, it is the oncoming-death cliches of ``Bryan's Song'' or ``Dark Victory'' but, in 1996, the extraordinary drama of impending death is not as novel as it was to other generations. Kleiser is known more for lighter fare, such as ``The Blue Lagoon,'' ``Grease'' and ``Honey, I Blew Up the Kids.'' Based on autobiographical material from his own life, ``Party'' shows that he has more serious matters on his mind.
Roberts plays a personable, mischievous and successful architect who breaks up with his male lover a year before he learns of his medical plight. The film whisks briskly through the ``back story'' until it gets to the party.
Lee Grant (Oscar winner for ``Shampoo'') plays Roberts' mother. George Segal (Oscar nominee for ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'') is his estranged father. Marlee Matlin (Oscar winner for ``Children of a Lesser God'') is his sister. The other guests include Olivia Newton-John, Bruce Davison and Sally Kellerman. Roddy McDowall plays a rather lightweight priest who has no idea how to morally treat the proposed death.
Things get intense, and a bit sappy, when teary-eyed TV hunk Gregory Harrison shows up as the former lover - eager to make amends. Harrison turns in the film's best performance.
Kleiser, though, is no Robert Altman. He can't flesh out the cameo-like appearances of this large cast. Instead, he focuses directly on Roberts and Harrison which, given the possibilities, is probably the correct choice. It limits the focus of the film, though, and makes it a little, personal work rather than something epic.
It falls to Bronson Pinchot (TV's ``Perfect Strangers'') to be the guest with most of the wisecracks. He points out that someone either has a good tan or ``is wearing Ava Gardner's make-up from `Show Boat.' '' In a more telling moment, he suggests that ``deep, deep, down, I'm pretty superficial.''
In a way, so is the film.
It tries too hard to be entertaining about its tragic subject matter.
At the same time, it is clear that both cast and director are performing a labor of love. The very offhand nature of the film's approach to death is chilling. It's as if this type of death has become so commonplace that this whole scenario is nothing out of the ordinary.
An even sadder tragedy might have been a depiction of a victim who was not surrounded by adoring friends giving a party - a victim who, perhaps, was forced to die alone and in disgrace by the the fears and prejudices of an intolerant society. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by UNITED ARTISTS
Gregory Harrison, left, and Eric Roberts star in ``It's My Party,''
a film about the farewell party of a man dying of AIDS.
Graphic
[Box]
MOVIE REVIEW
``It's My Party''
Cast: Eric Roberts, Gregory Harrison, Lee Grant, Olivia
Newton-John, Bruce Davison, Marlee Matlin, Bronson Pinchot, George
Segal, Roddy McDowall, Sally Kellerman, Nina Foch, Christopher
Atkins
Director: Randal Kleiser
MPAA rating: R (some language, adult tragedy)
Mal's rating: three stars
Location: Naro in Norfolk
by CNB