F14 FRIDAY, DECEMBER II, l992

MOVIE REVIEW `Love Field' a Triumph for Pfeiffer

By KENNETH TURAN TIMES FILM CRITIC 4, L ove Field" is one of those movies your heart wants to love but your head tells you not so fast. Equal parts honest sentiment and strained contriv- ance, it wins us over with the latest in a growing line of exceptional performances from Michelle Pfeif- fer, an actress who doesn't seem capable of so much as setting a foot wrong on screen. Finished for months but unre- leased because of the fiscal trou- bles of beleaguered Orion, "Love Field" opens at the AMC 14 in Century City for a week of acade- my consideration in the justifiable hope of gaining a best actress nomination for Pfeiffer, who is simply incandescent as the vulner- able, irrepressible Lurene Hallett, a woman who marches deter- minedly to a drum no one else can hear. PATRICK DEMARCHEL1EN The year is 1963, the day is Nov. Michelle Pfeiffer in "Love Field": Simply incandescent as Lurene, 22, and Lurene is a Dallas beauti- cian and housewife who is giddy to the point of hysteria over the imminent arrival of President and Mrs. Kennedy. For Lurene, if the truth be known, next door to worships Jacqueline Kennedy. She keeps a comprehensive scrapbook of newspaper and magazine arti- cles, has the patterns to the First Lady's clothes, and even wears a pillbox hat in her honor as she and a crotchety neighbor head out to Love Field to see Air Force One arrive. Lurene's giddiness, obviously, is fated not to last, and when the news spreads later that day that the President has been assassinat- ed, she is all but shattered. There is nothing for it but to go back East to the funeral, and when her border- line loutish husband, Ray (Brian Kerwin), can't be persuaded to take the trip with her, Lurene sneaks off in the dead of night to board a cross-country bus to her destiny.

Iso on that bus are Paul Cater A (Dennis Haysbert), a tall, somber black man, and his young es, going through it with Pfeiffer is willing to suspend a whole lot of an unmatched way to travel. disbelief to enjoy a performance as While eccentric Southern wom- good as Pfeiffer's, even this kind of en are also far from a surprise on gallantry finally has its limits. screen, Pfeiffer's Lurene comes Implausibility doesn't kill "Love alive in a way that only the best Field," but it's a shame a film with actresses can manage. Under the so many appealing qualities has so sure direction of Jonathan Kaplan much of it to contend with. (who with equal aplomb worked with Jodie Foster in "The Ac- 'Love Field' cused" and Bonnie Bedelia in WOO* Pfeiffer Wens Hallett "Heart Like a Wheel"), Pfeiffer Donnie Harbert Peal Way Stephanie hicialleen Jame never' condescends to her charac- Wm Varela Ray Mallett ter, never treats the role as a lark Lens. Latham Mr...Ended Peggy nee MK Neksenbuttal the way many another actresses A Santed/Pnlibury prodUction, released try orlon might, but instead gives Lurene Pictures. Director Jonathan Kaplan. Producers Sarah Pilisnury and Midge Salleird. Executive producers the reality and emotional heft that George Goodman, nate Irtzburg, Screenplay Don she deserves. Roos. Cinematographer Rif Bode. Editor Jane Kurson Costumes Peter Mitchell. Musk Jerry Goldsmith Pro- Rather than winking at the audi- duction design Matti Emebant Art directors David Will- ence, she lets us see both the son. Lance king. Set decmMor Jim Erickson. Running time, I hour. 44 mioutos humor and the sadness in Lurene, MPAA-rated P0.13. the poignancy of a woman whose childlike self-delusions and wide- eyed sincerity cannot only be an irritant but also a mask for serious pain. Though both Haysbert (who was a late replacement for Denzel Washington) and newcomer McFadden (who had never previ- ously performed outside of a church choir) do excellent work, daughter, the silent and serious this is Pfeiffer's movie and it is a Jonell (Stephanie McFadden). Lu- pleasure to watch her walk around rene idly chats them up in her in it. cheerful and chipper busybody Entrancing a character as Lu- Way. oblivious to the other passen- rene is, however, and as nice a gers (who view them as odd con- touch as director Kaplan has for versation partners) or even to the reality of human situations, Cater's obvious reluctance to say "Love Field" has obstacles to cope one word more than is absolutely with. Though the script by Don necessary. People will talk, and Roos clearly has no difficulty de- Lurene is nothing if not just folks. lineating character, plausible plot- ;,As audiences will immediately ting (as was the case with Roos' sense, Lurene has unknowingly work in "Single White Female") embarked not just on a bus ride to does not appear to be as much of a Washington but also on a trip into strength. herself, a journey that, through her For "Love Field" (rated PG-13) interaction with Paul and Jonell, is in considerable part a melodra- will enable her to experience and ma, filled with various kinds of explore more than she could have jeopardy for its participants, and anticipated. If this kind of road too many of its coincidences turn movie is becoming something of a out to be not nearly as believable predictable pilgrimage for actress- as they should. And while one is '