DATE: Wednesday, May 7, 1997                TAG: 9705080654

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   55 lines

``CHASING AMY'' IS FRANK, INTELLIGENT

``CHASING AMY'' talks the talk, a great deal of it, but it also dares to walk the walk. It scores heavily for emotional honesty.

The dialogue rings of the '90s frankness while, at the same time, it is surprisingly intelligent.

In a movie climate that is mostly explosives and special-effects mania, this is a film about relationships. The three central characters are young people who are trying to find their way.

Ben Affleck and Jason Lee play successful comic-book artists who have been friends for decades. They regularly go to bars in hopes of picking up girls. The rest of the time they scour copies of Playboy. When Affleck meets the girl played by Joey Lauren Adams, he falls in love in what might be a risky way. This is that rare movie in which a guy can outright say ``I love you'' to a girl and you believe he means it. There's nothing mushy about it when you are as committed as this smitten soul. He's got it bad - and Adams' pert, saucy performance allows us to see exactly why.

Just one of the troubles is that Alyssa, the girl played by the exuberant Adams, prefers to sleep with women. Another is that buddy Lee sees her as a wild type, and feels that Affleck is much too conservative for her. Revelations from her long-ago high school days get in the way.

The surprising thing about ``Chasing Amy'' is that it goes for raw emotions, with no holds barred. Made on a low budget, it has a preponderance of closeups and a great deal of talk, but the talk is never boring. It may be shocking, but, at the same time, it is treated off-handedly. Realism, not smut, is the intention. The conversational give-and-take goes in so many directions that we are eventually persuaded to care about these characters. As it turns out, her sexual preference is just one of the more easily solvable problems that threaten the relationship.

Director-writer Kevin Smith scored with similarly frank and honest dialogue in ``Clerks,'' his controversial first film - an ultra-low-budget hit that drew both critics and audience. He foundered with his second film, ``Mallrats,'' a fiasco that is best forgotten. He proves with ``Chasing Amy'' that his gift for writing dialogue is here to stay.

The Amy of the title, incidentally, is an offscreen, mythical woman - not the character played by Adams.

The language is frankly sexual in such an off-handed way that you will feel you are invading the characters' privacy. Indeed, you are. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Chasing Amy''

Cast: Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell,

Jason Mewes

Director and Writer: Kevin Smith

MPAA rating: R (sex-related dialogue, sexuality)

Mal's rating: Three stars

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