In the Spirit

What a marvelous cast: Olympia Dukakis, Peter Falk, Elaine May, Melanie Griffith, and none other than "that girl" Marlo Thomas. Yet the top biller is none of the above. The "star" (who dies during the first reel) is Jeannie Berlin. Berlin plays a prostitute named Crystal who dies mysteriously and leaves an incriminating date book in the hands of new age nut Reva (Thomas) and recently abandoned uppercrust wife Marianne (May). As the unlikely duo attempt to first evade and then trap the bad boy detective who is listed in Crystal's book, the film gradually moves from frantic to desperate. During the last half of the film, we're left boxed into a small house with Thomas and May trading embarrassingly hokey verbal repartee at warp speed. By this time the audience is left with only one overriding question: how on earth did this movie get made? The answer is not to be found in the credits, but rather in a bit of family history: screenwriter Jeannie Berlin is the daughter of Elaine May. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)