Just Between Friends

Writer-director Allan Burns seems to have patched together two different scripts about sisterhood and infidelity/betrayal. Christine Lahti plays a crass, cynical TV news reporter who makes friends with aerobics instructor Mary Tyler Moore; soon, she's having dinner with her new friend's family, only to discover Moore's husband is Lahti's married lover. Burns has a strange, stop-and-start rhythm to his dialogue which is neither realistic nor effective (just increasingly annoying, because nothing important seems to get said). Rail-thin Mary, looking alarmingly frail in her leotard, has a radiant smile but doesn't convince as Ted Danson's wife (and he's stuck with a paltry, thankless role, merely present as the cad). The movie attempts to cover all its bases in a classic case of overreaching (a woman's role in the workplace, the TV news-biz, the cheating family man, the working wife and mother who wants more, a woman's need for female friendships, et al), but nothing substantial comes of these ideas since Burns only half-heartedly examines the issues. As a writer, Burns is surprisingly free of punchlines; however, his script is uncertain of its purpose, and the heavy plotting just gets all fouled up. *1/2 from ****