
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993                   TAG: 9310020074
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

'ORLANDO' IS PRETTY, BUT STILL A SNOOZER

Though it's being promoted as the latest in gender-bending serious entertainment, "Orlando" is a conventional historical drama where characters stand around stiffly in ornate costumes.

Based on Virginia Woolf's novel, the film begins in the England of 1600 where the young nobleman Orlando (Tilda Swinton) is a favorite of Queen Elizabeth and her court. For reasons that don't make much sense under close scrutiny but work fine in the film, Orlando decides never to grow old but to remain young and beautiful in perpetuity.

Orlando also has the odd habit of nodding off for long naps that last for days. After one of these, he wakes up to find that he's now a she. At that point she turns and addresses the camera - as she does throughout the film - and says, "Same person, no difference at all - just a different sex."

Sure.

If writer-director Sally Potter had persuasively accomplished her androgynous mission, that ridiculous oversimplification might generate some controversy. But the central failure of "Orlando" is that its protagonist and narrator is never the least bit convincing as a man. From beginning to end, this story is told from a woman's perspective. In terms of cross-gender believability, nothing in "Orlando" comes close to Jaye Davidson's "Crying Game" performance. No matter how she's dressed, Tilda Swinton is a woman and a strikingly beautiful one.

That's not to say that the film isn't satisfying as historical drama. Given a reportedly limited budget, the filmmakers have done a remarkable job of recreating several different times and places. The early scenes on a frozen River Thames are particularly effective.

But all the costumes and sets can't disguise the fact that almost nothing happens in the film. It glides along at a somnambulant pace without the narrative force that drives most conventional movies. And that, of course, is the point.

Viewers who can accept a languid, hypnotic approach to historical surrealism will be delighted by "Orlando." Others will be squirming in their seats.

\ Orlando: **

A Sony Pictures Classics release playing at the Grandin Theatre. 93 min. Rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content.

by CNB