This R rated 113 minute DVD feature film stars Whoopie Gol dberg, Mary-Louise Parker, and Drew Barrymore.
BOYS ON THE SIDE is a simultaneously funny and moving drama of self-discovery. Three very different women find themselves together at individual crossroads in their lives. When Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) a street-smart New York lesbian, answers an ad to drive across the country, she meets Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), a prim and proper real-estate agent desperate to flee the city. The seemingly opposite pair embarks on a road trip together, concealing truths about one another: Robin is suffering from AIDS in silence, and Jane hides her homosexuality. Along the way they stop in Pittsburgh to visit Jane's friend Holly (Drew Barrymore). Holly is involved in an abusive relationship with her junkie boyfriend Nick, and when Jane attempts to take Holly with her, Nick violently intervenes. When Robin hears all the commotion, she miraculously saves the day by calming Nick down, then binding him to a chair while Holly packs her bags. However, as the three women travel west, Jane spies Nick's photograph in a newspaper--in an obituary. The trio decides to continue the journey, finding strength in one another's friendship. Director Herb Ross's touching film examines the bonds these women form as they endure heartache and love together in spite of their differences.
Three mismatched women--an African American lesbian (Whoopi Goldberg), an uptight AIDS sufferer (Mary Louise Parker), and a flirty young pot smoker (Drew Barrymore)--travel across the country together in this alternately funny and moving road dramedy. The women endure love and loss as they make a home for one another in Arizona and realize the strength and power of their friendship.
The bar band in Tucson, where Jane plays keyboards, is real-life singing sensation the Indigo Girls.
"I am not going over a cliff for you two."--Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) to her friends, in a sly reference to the feminist road-trip movie THELMA AND LOUISE
"She's holding you back, man. Everyone says it. She's like Yoko with bangs."--Jane to bandmate
Boys On The Side Reviews:
"...Parker is moving..."
-- Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today
"...Lush, weepy..."
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
"Boasting tour-de-force performances by its three leads....Barrymore's an absolute hoot..."
-- Brian Lowry, Variety
"...[The actresses are] so sharp, funny and wholehearted that this film creates an unexpected groundswell of real emotion..."
-- Janet Maslin, New York Times
"...Actors relish this sort of thing, and the leads give strong, well-rounded, Oscar-friendly performances..."-- Leslie Felperin, Sight and Sound
"...The [actresses] are so spirited and funny -- so emotionally keyed into al the hearts and flowers -- that they give the movie their own kind of truth..."-- Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Times
"...It is original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become family..."
-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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