FOOLS FOR LOVE

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

A SLACKER EPIC? SOUNDS LIKE AN oxymoron. Usually movies about the young and well rested feature no more than a padful of twenty-somethings making disaffected comments about the life that is passing them by. In Beautiful Girls, however, doping off is portrayed as the great no-growth industry of a small New England town buried in snow and youthful regrets. And because its creators bring to the topic of fecklessness its opposite qualities--ambition, energy, intelligence--they transform it into something interesting.

It's the guys, naturally, who are the most funked out. They are passionately committed to the wrong women (as is the case with Matt Dillon's Tommy), unable to commit to the right one until it's too late (Michael Rapaport's Paul), or endlessly considering their options (Timothy Hutton's Willie). The latter, a barroom pianist in New York City, has come home to think over his relationship with a high-powered lawyer. Before making the right decision, he flirts with another visitor (Uma Thurman) and, most interestingly, with the 13-year-old who lives next door (Natalie Portman).

Shocking? No. More a measure of the movie's originality. For, age difference aside, Hutton and Portman are perfectly matched ironists--''Romeo and Juliet, the dyslexic version," as she calls them--dealing with the largest irony of all, the fact that they dare not touch, let alone dream of fulfillment together. Their rue and wryness are characteristic of Scott Rosenberg's writerly script, the playing of their encounters typical of a fine acting ensemble and of Ted Demme's discreet yet forceful direction. Beautiful Girls is always in touch with reality but never drowned in it.

--By Richard Schickel