steven@ism70.UUCP (07/02/85)
ST. ELMO'S FIRE Starring Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Judd Nelson, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy and Mare Winningham. Also starring Martin Balsam, Andie MacDowall and Jenny Wright. Directed by Joel Schumacher. Written by Joel Schumacher and Carl Kurlander. Produced by Lauren Shuler. Photographed by Stephen H. Burum. Art Direction by William Sandell. Edited by Richard Marks. Music Supervised and Scored by David Foster. From Columbia Pictures (1985). I wish all my friends were as attractive and had such interesting problems and that we all lived in such bitchin' designer apartments. I guess that's most of the appeal of _S_t_._ _E_l_m_o_'_s_ _F_i_r_e, a.k.a. _T_h_e_ _L_i_t_t_l_e_ _C_h_i_l_l. The seven leads are friends from Georgetown University, newly graduated and in their "freshman year of Life", as the script puts it. Emilio Estevez has a mad crush on intern Andie MacDowall. Rob Lowe can't hold onto a job (or his wife and kid). Judd Nelson climbs the political ladder, turning back on his Democratic idealism. Everybody thinks cynical young writer (are _a_l_l writers cynical or what?) Andrew McCarthy is gay. Demi Moore lives life in the fast lane. Ally Sheedy, who lives with Judd Nelson, won't marry him, despite his repeated entreaties. Mare Winningham's family keeps pressuring her to quit her job and settle down into marriage with a nice Jewish boy who can enter her dad's business. Seventeen or eighteen interwoven subplots later, you can walk out of the theater and realize what trashy melodrama this picture really is. But you may also see a little bit of truth in one or two of the characters. Not a lot, and you certainly won't see much insight or any kind of overriding theme. _S_t_._ _E_l_m_o_'_s_ _F_i_r_e substitutes slickness and glibness for intelligence too often. Its characters talk and act the way negative reviews of _T_h_e_ _B_i_g _C_h_i_l_l and _T_h_e_ _B_r_e_a_k_f_a_s_t_ _C_l_u_b accused those films of having their characters talk and act: glibly and with complete self-centeredness. I don't know, it didn't bother me. It's entertaining enough. And I enjoyed seeing these actors and actresses playing people their own age. Two and a half stars out of four.