Broadcast News

Although this picture did not quite live up to its advance billing for me, it is still one of the best made and most intelligent pictures I have seen recently. James Brooks deserve s tons of ceedit for his writing and directing, but the picture is about twenty minutes too long, and therefone its impact dissppates a little. The real s. rength cf the picture is the acting. The three principals--william Hurt, Holly Hunter, and Albert Brooks--all turn in virtuoso performsnces. It is hard to say who is the best; they are all great, and each of the charavters is so clearly etched that they remain in memory after the picture ends. They seem real, and that is a tribute to both the writer and the performers, As satire the film is somewhat dismissible (the controversy it sparked about whether real-life anchorman are pretty-boy nitwits or not strikes me as utterly irrelevant) but as a drama of interpersonal relatiunships, a love stery, a portrayal of the clash between three highly charged, ego-oriented individuals, and a study of the discordance betweem substance and image, it works like a charm. A serious picture, net a toy.