THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 5, 1996 TAG: 9605070554
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
``THE PALLBEARER'' is a sweet, romantic comedy that is alternately hilarious and sad.
Tom Thompson, the plain-guy hero, is 25 and has his college degree but he's still living with his mother, doesn't have a job, and has no steady girlfriend.
Then a teary mother asks him to be a pallbearer at her son's funeral. The deceased is Bill Abernathy, a person she identifies as one of Tom's closest high school friends. The only problem is that Tom doesn't remember him.
Things are further complicated when she asks Tom to deliver the eulogy at the funeral. Being a nice guy, Tom agrees.
Tom plunges forward with a hilarious eulogy that is a masterpiece of vagueness. (It's one of the funniest scenes of the movie year.)
Bill's mother turns out to be a sexpot blonde who wears short skirts and gives Tom the come-on.
At the same time, he gets a second chance with the dream girl from his past, Julie DeMarco, the girl he coveted when she was his chemistry lab partner in high school. Back then, she ignored him. Now, his gawky vulnerability attracts her.
With David Schwimmer, of TV's hit ``Friends,'' in the role of Tom, the lad is a sad-sack, droopy-eyed Everyguy. He looks like a wounded puppy. He's as likable as Tom Hanks, with the sad-faced comic look of a Buster Keaton.
Can he act? The jury is still out on that count; Tom is fairly close to the lucky geek Schwimmer plays in the TV show. Whether he has a range beyond this is questionable, but it makes no difference when it comes to making ``The Pallbearer'' a little comic gem.
``The Pallbearer,'' the product of rookie director Matt Reeves, has the brash, youthful quality of the overly serious and overly traumatic years when boys suddenly realize they have to become men - whether they like it or not.
The older-woman relationship, of course, cries for comparison to ``The Graduate,'' the 1968 film which, more than any movie, signaled the beginning of Hollywood's catering to the so-called ``youth market.'' ``The Graduate'' took youth seriously and was credited with defining a generation.
Will ``The Pallbearer'' do the same thing for Generation X? Are things that similar? Only time will reveal whether ``The Pallbearer'' touches any exposed nerves. The characters played by Dustin Hoffman in ``The Graduate'' and Schwimmer here are quite different. Hoffman was from a rich family and had the world ahead of him. Tom, in this version, has practically no opportunities in sight. His college degree doesn't mean much.
The parents, though, are still rather out of it. Tom's mom, played by Carol Kane, means well but she's overly protective. It is indicative of the film's fairness that she is not a villainess. Kane, looking older than ever before, is suitably ditzy.
Barbara Hershey, almost unrecognizable in her blonde get-up, is the Mrs. Robinson here. Her character, Ruth Abernathy, is something of a mystery. She's either a lonely, sad woman or a psycho straight out of ``Fatal Attraction.''
Gwyneth Paltrow, probably the most promising young actress in film today, is perfectly sympathetic as Julie.
The cast is filled out by the delightfully brash Michael Rapaport and the married-but-wandering character played by Michael Vartan.
Along with the current ``Flirting With Disaster,'' ``The Pallbearer'' proves that intelligent comedy can still be found. Best of all, ``The Pallbearer'' plays its game seriously at all times - allowing the audience to decide for itself when to laugh.
This is dark comedy at its most endearing. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MIRAMAX
In this comic gem, Tom (David Schwimmer) must eulogize a former high
school classmate he doesn't remember.
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Pallbearer''
Cast: David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Barbara Hershey, Michael
Rapaport, Carol Kane, Toni Collette
Director: Matt Reeves
MPAA rating: PG-13 (some language, sexual situations)
Mal's rating: Four stars
Locations: Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Columbus, Lynnhaven Mall
in Virginia Beach
by CNB