Critics' Voices: Jan. 13, 1992

MOVIES

FATHER OF THE BRIDE. In 1992 the middle class deserves a good cry over something besides the recession, so why not a wedding? Well, because this soppy comedy is pretty lame, despite the efforts of Steve Martin (Dad) and the easy charm of Diane Keaton (Mom).

AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD. In these politically correct days, most epic journeys into exotic lands are guilt trips, pinning blame for the world's woes on the evil white male. Director Hector Babenco's turgid trek into the Brazilian rain forest accomplishes this and more: it makes the viewer feel guilty for wasting three hours and seven bucks.

GRAND CANYON. The season's Nice Try Award goes to Lawrence Kasdan. As director and co-writer of this rambling comedy-drama, he tackles big issues (race relations, infidelity, mid-life malaise, crime) with some soaring ingenuity and the help of an attractive cast (Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Mary-Louise Parker). Grand Canyon goes all weird and wussy at the end, but for the first hour or so it addresses real issues and feelings -- the preoccupations of most people who work outside Hollywood.

TELEVISION

DAYS OF OUR LIVES: ONE STORMY NIGHT (NBC, Jan. 10, 8 p.m. EST). Just before presenting the annual Soap Opera Digest awards, NBC tries something new: a special prime-time episode of its popular daytime serial. Hold your breath: if it scores well in the ratings, nighttime may soon be awash in soapsuds.

LAST WISH (ABC, Jan. 12, 9 p.m. EST). Maureen Stapleton is a woman suffering from cancer, and Patty Duke is the daughter who must decide whether to help her die, in this unflinching TV movie based on Betty Rollin's book.

FONDA ON FONDA (TNT, Jan. 13, 8 p.m. EST). Now that she's part of the family, Jane has to do something to earn her keep. In this Turner network special, she narrates a moving, well-assembled tribute to her dad's movie career.

MUSIC

FRANK SINATRA: A TOUR DE FORCE (Bravura). A live bootleg recording of a 1959 concert in Melbourne, Australia, with the Red Norvo Quintet. It's not only Sinatra's generic greatness that makes this one a must. He seldom worked with small groups, and the agility of Norvo and friends really gives the Chairman room to move. And when Sinatra moves, the earth does too.

THE BEACH BOYS: GOOD VIBRATIONS SMILE (Sphinx). A reconstruction on CD of rock's most famous aborted masterpiece, Brian Wilson's extravaganza of California karma, surf culture and the infinite head trip.

THEATER

TWELFTH NIGHT. Gender bending is at the center of the Bard's richest comedy, so director Neil Bartlett takes the idea to a wry extreme at Chicago's Goodman Theater, casting a man as the cross-dressing woman and women in most of the parts meant for men.

THREE SISTERS. Edward Herrmann and Linda Hunt head an all-star cast that Broadway producers would envy in Chekhov's tragedy of a family thwarted, but the staging is way off-Broadway -- 50 miles off -- at Princeton's McCarter Theater.

THE PHILANTHROPIST. Two decades ago, Christopher Hampton was proclaimed a budding genius for this drawing-room tragicomedy about a man who accomplishes only evil in trying to do good. Apart from Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Hampton's promise remains unfulfilled. New Haven's Long Wharf Theater revisits his breakthrough text.

BOOKS