
DATE: Monday, April 28, 1997                TAG: 9704260072

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   64 lines

DERN'S PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS GUTLESS FILM

RUTH SNOOPS is a career-defining role that Laura Dern obviously relishes with the kind of fervor a spider might have for a web. The character - and the actress - asks for no sympathy.

Ruth Snoops, the title character of the satiric comedy ``Citizen Ruth,'' is unwashed and immoral when we meet her. At the end, she's washed, but otherwise unchanged. She's addicted to sniffing glue, paint and any other kind of chemical that gets her high.

Arrested and threatened with a charge of harming her unborn baby, an irritated judge offers her the option of getting off lightly if she aborts the baby. She, frankly, doesn't care one way or the other. This is her fifth pregnancy. Her four children were all put up for adoption immediately after their birth.

Ruth, though, attracts both sides of the abortion crisis in what turns out, unexpectedly, to be an out-of-control movie that is more about fanatacism than it is about either pro-choice or pro-life. Set in Omaha, Neb., the heart of middle America, it pokes fun at both the Baby Savers, a group of pro-life holier-than-thous, and the crowd of overly intense pro-choice advocates. .

The Baby Savers, represented by Mary Kay Place and Kurtwood Smith, offer Ruth a home. She keeps the family waiting while she takes long baths and puts on her makeup. Smith leers sexually at his guest while his wife chirps perkily about the good they're doing.

Meanwhile, two lesbian abortion rights supporters (Swoosie Kurtz and Kelly Preston) seek Ruth to join them - and abort the baby. Burt Reynolds, of all people, plays the national leader of the Baby Savers. His deadpan delivery is one of the funniest moments in the film.

Both sides want to make Ruth a national symbol for their cause, but she simply wants as much money as she can get.

Dern's blank naivete, sparked by unbounded energy, make this one of the year's best performances. After she won best actress at the Montreal World Film Festival, everyone expected the Academy to take note, but the film itself got lost in the shuffle - mainly because audiences are confused as to just how they are supposed to feel about it.

Forced to guess, I'd be willing to bet that the producers are pro-choice advocates, simply because that's the way we expect Hollywood folks to think. The film, though, wants to have things both ways. It comes across like politicians running in the last presidential election - making uncompromising statements that are meant to please both sides. Consequently, the film emerges with a somewhat gutless, and largely pointless, look.

Nonetheless, it's always appropriate to see fanatics mirrored for the obsessive beings they are.

Most of all, the film is worthwhile for Dern's very brave and very honest performance. ``Citizen Ruth'' may be unstructured and unpredictable, but it, at the very least, tries for a genre few others will try - socio-politico satire. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW

``Citizen Ruth''

Cast: Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Kurtwood Smith, Mary Kay Place,

Kelly Preston, Tippi Hedren, Burt Reynolds

Director: Alexander Payne

Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

MPAA rating: R (sexual content, language, glue-sniffing)

Mal's rating: ***

Location: Naro Theater in Norfolk