Movie Review : Romance Is on the Air : Pfeiffer, Redford Make ‘Up Close and Personal’ an Old-Fashioned Love Story

To the casual eye, Sallyanne Atwater’s first day as weather girl for Miami’s WMIA Channel 9, “the News Heartbeat of the American Riviera,” could not be classified as promising.

First comes throwing up in the bathroom. Then the shock of having her name changed, on air, to Tally. Thoroughly shaken up, the poor woman fumbles with props, stumbles over her lines and seems to pretty much cover herself with embarrassment.

But Warren Justice, bless his handsome, rugged heart, does not have a casual eye. One of the most respected names in broadcast journalism (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) enduring self-imposed exile as WMIA’s news director, Warren leans forward in his chair when Tally’s spot is over, takes a breath to steady himself and says with close to awe, “She eats the lens.”

Exactly. In fact, they both do.

An old-fashioned star-driven romance constructed of equal parts shrewdness and shamelessness, “Up Close and Personal” is no cinematic landmark, but if you don’t care about reality and resist the impulse to take things too seriously, it’s great fun to watch. Seeing this is like working through a box of seductive chocolates: Enjoying too many may feel sinful, but the experience is too satisfying to consider stopping.

Like those chocolates, star vehicles are only as good as their ingredients, and in Michelle Pfeiffer as Tally and Robert Redford as Warren “Up Close” has spoken up for quality. The chemistry between these two is genuine, so much so that their slyly flirtatious moments end up having more of a charge than the rather pro forma PG-13 lovemaking they eventually take part in.

Though this project began with the real-life career of TV newscaster Jessica Savitch (and the film still gives a “suggested by” credit to a book on her life), Savitch’s story has little to do with what’s now on screen. Old movie fans will recognize this picture’s true inspiration as one of the most durable of movie plots, the story of “A Star Is Born.”

Made and remade three times under its own name, most famously starring Judy Garland and James Mason, “A Star Is Born” last hit the screen 20 years ago with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in the leads. Getting credit on that version were Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, who, not surprisingly, are the screenwriters here as well.

Though the scene in “Up Close” has been shifted from movies and music to a collateral branch of show business, the basic dynamic of a young female eagerly moving up, being both mentored and loved by a veteran male inescapably on the way down, has been lovingly retained.

“Up Close’s” screenplay has smartly modernized this situation by opting to emphasize equality between the sexes in both careers and romance. And it’s hard not to admire the way Didion and Dunne have wholeheartedly embraced the well-worn scenario, throwing in chewy movie-movie exchanges of the “do you want to be with me/so much it hurts” variety while offering up assorted pokes at the way TV news is run.

Even director Jon Avnet, who followed the success of “Fried Green Tomatoes” with “The War,” one of the most egregiously overwrought of recent movies, makes a contribution here. Keeping events moving at a fine pace and possibly unaware that he is making a high-gloss soap opera, Avnet treats these sudsy doings as if he were directing “Schindler’s List,” a degree of seriousness and commitment that is essential if this kind of business is going to come off successfully.

“Up Close” is initially as uncertain as Sallyanne on her first day on the job, but Avnet and company calm down and allow the film’s ripe situations to play out as expected. Here’s the renamed Tally, desperate for knowledge, falling under the tutelage of sage old Warren, who first instills humility by making her pick up his laundry and then dispenses nuggets of presumably hard-won wisdom like “Yesterday is history, the news happens today.”

It’s just as much fun to see Warren and Tally falling in love, though both do resist it mightily, even after the pro forma screaming argument in a rainstorm that should have tipped them off that romance was in the air. She tells him about her hardscrabble past as a Miss Sierra Logger contestant and then conscientiously researches his glory years as a White House and war correspondent.

Naturally “Up Close’s” plot throws these two bushels of curves, including a Barbara Walters-type ex-wife (Kate Nelligan) and a big-time agent with the delicious name of Bucky Terranova (Joe Mantegna). And of course there are the little speed bumps like a catty co-anchor (Stockard Channing), duplicitous TV executives and even a bloody prison riot. Because being gorgeous and in love has never ever been easy.

Without the glamour of Redford and Pfeiffer, obviously, none of this succeeds, and Redford in some ways has the easier task. As an “I’ve been here before” kind of guy, Warren is not called upon to do much more than look dazzled by Tally’s energy and effrontery. Not notably believable as a modern-day Edward R. Murrow, Redford is completely convincing only as a romantic partner for his co-star, but that is the one area that counts.

As for Pfeiffer, the things she does wonderfully well are no longer news, but she does them as effectively here as she ever has. Always genuine and alive on screen, an actress who never makes a wrong move, Pfeiffer simply compels belief in her character both as waif and world-class sophisticate. This is the kind of rich performance any of the old queens of Hollywood would envy. And for a picture like “Up Close and Personal,” there can be no greater compliment.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for brief strong language, some sensuality and depictions of violence. Times guidelines: mild all the way.

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‘Up Close and Personal’

Robert Redford: Warren Justice

Michelle Pfeiffer: Tally Atwater

Stockard Channing: Marcia McGrath

Joe Mantegna: Bucky Terranova

Kate Nelligan: Joanna Kennelly

Glenn Plummer: Ned Jackson

John Rebhorn: John Merino

Touchstone Pictures presents in association with Cinergi Pictures Entertainment, an Avnet/Kerner production, released by Buena Vista Pictures. Director Jon Avnet. Producers Jon Avnet, David Nicksay, Jordan Kerner. Executive producers Ed Hookstratten, John Foreman. Screenplay Joan Didion & John Gregory Dunne, suggested by the book “Golden Girl” by Alanna Nash. Cinematographer Karl Walter Lindenlaub. Editor Debra Neil-Fisher. Costumes Albert Wolksy. Music Thomas Newman. Production design Jeremy Conway. Art directors Mark W. Mansbridge, Bruce Alan Miller. Set decorator Doree Cooper. Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.