Miracle Worker

By RICHARD CORLISS

RESURRECTION Directed by Daniel Petrie Screenplay by Lewis John Carlino

Edna Mae (Ellen Burstyn) is a faith healer without an orthodox faith. Though the deaf and the halt are cured at her touch, she is no manic Holy Roller, no snake-shaking spellbinder invoking God's immediate intervention for the sake of a fatter collection plate. She is a sensible Kansas widow, retrieved from a brush with death, who restores health "in the name of love." Love is all she wants to give to the two men in her life: her stern pa (Roberts Blossom), who responds to her proffered caress both as a seduction and a slap, and a young rake (Sam Shepard), who is at first liberated by her power and then consumed in it.

Like its characters, Resurrection is a sympathetic but irreconcilable olio of extremes. The film swerves between irony and sentimentality, human drama and melodrama, powerful acting and shameless hammery--sometimes in the same sequence or shot. Screenwriter Carlino and Director Petrie have previously worked in the genres of sci-fi schizophrenia (Seconds and Sybil) and domestic conflict (The Great Santini and Eleanor and Franklin). Here, they have tried to blend the two forms, but the film does not always gel. The problem may stem from a lack of faith in its "small," challenging story. When in doubt, Carlino inserts a violent climax, or Petrie thrusts Edna Mae into an afterlife that looks like an overlighted subway tunnel. They are more success ful in illuminating small, crucial scenes from the life of this ordinary woman who happens to be a miracle worker.

Any movie whose dramatis personae include a lovable old coot (Richard Farnsworth), a wisdom-of-the-ages granny (Eva Le Gallienne), a six-year-old victim of cancer and a Benji-type mutt is pouring itself a tub of bathos. One actor falls in: Roberts Blossom, whose Old Testament gaze and sucked-in gums make the American Gothic farmer seem as jolly as a game-show host. But most of the performers bring craft and conviction to their roles. Shepard is especially fine. This gifted young playwright, whose works show an inside knowledge of America's prodi gal sons, now threatens to become a movie star. His whip-thin body coils itself around a character. In this difficult, not altogether plausible part, he menaces and mesmerizes.

In its earliest form, Resurrection was the story of Christ returned to earth as a woman. It was Ellen Burstyn who urged the film into the direction it ultimately took. She brings to the role her customary intelligence, passion and a humanizing sense of humor. Edna Mae is just as surprised and troubled by her healing gift as her neighbors are; and Burstyn helps the moviegoer share in this discovery. She may not walk on water, but she still performs a miracle of sorts: turning this ambitious, split-level movie into a personal triumph.

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