‘Boys on the Side’

By all rights “Boys on the Side” should be a howler. It has the kind of high-low concept that sounds like a parody of a post-”Thelma & Louise” bond-a-thon. Whoopi Goldberg is a lesbian and struggling club singer; Mary-Louise Parker is a prim, gravely-ill real-estate agent; Drew Barrymore is a little love dumpling on the run from her abusive boyfriend. The 1995 film is about how they form a kind of family on a coast-to-coast journey. The characters and situations are as sudsy and manipulative as any daytime soaper. But the three women are so spirited and funny--so emotionally keyed into all the hearts and flowers--that they give the movie their own kind of truth (HBO Saturday at 8 p.m.).