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R: ARCHIVE, S: REVIEWS, D: 11/21/1996,

Everything Relative

The Big Chill might not have summed up a generation, but it did manage to handicap a generation of filmmakers. The latest to take up the facile premise of a reunion of old friends as a means of self-indulgently exploring one's own demographic is Sharon Pollack with her debut feature Everything Relative. A group of women who were college mates in the '70s gather to celebrate the bris of one of their company's newborns. All but one of these women are lesbians -- you can tell the straight one because she's mousy and says things like, "My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for years; maybe I should rub up against you guys." Over the next few days they bond, sing, carp, joke, discuss old and new relationships, and remonstrate over relevant gay issues, all in a self-consciously perky tone and with a leadenly PC attitude. It doesn't help that there are far more characters than Pollack's limited directorial skills can handle, and that they are not really distinguishable except as representative types. The performers are attractive and talented, but Pollack should do herself a favor and chill out. At the Coolidge Corner.

-- Peter Keough