A rare and lovely movie focusing on female friendship, Boys On the Side explores 3 women, the way they sabotage themselves and how they love each other anyway. Mary-Louise Parker is Robin, an uptight real estate agent dying of AIDS. She wants to make a cross-country trip from New York to California- one that she made as a child and now holds sacred, as it was shortly before her younger brother died. Whoopie Goldberg is Jane, a black lesbian singer who also wants to go to California in hopes of getting more work. A stop in Pittsburg introduced Drew Barrymore as Holly, an adorable ditz with blond corkscrew curls and an indomitably upbeat view on life. When Jane and Robin arrive, she's being beaten up by her drug-dealer boyfriend, Nick. Violence insues, and they take off, leaving him tied up. Unfortunately Holly hit him a bit too hard with a baseball bat and he croaks. No one will miss the loser except his customers and Holly, who is far too forgiving for her own good. There is some talk of going to the police, but in the end they decide that it's good riddance to bad rubbish. They continue with the trip- until they are stopped in Tucson by Robin's bought of pneumonia. And in Tucson they stay, with Jane getting work at a local bar, Robin getting involved with the bartender that works there, and Holly- who is pregnant, maybe by Nick or maybe not- falls in love with a cop named, of all things, Abe Lincoln. Relationships get more complicated from there, with the director keeping a firm eye on the interaction of women as friends. I don't really have any sympathy over the darth of strong or likable male characters in this movie, largely due to the fact that I've seen dozens with half a five main male characters and one female sexpot. That's the standard, and it's both amusing and irritating when guys grumble or scream when someone has the audacity to make a movie where that is reversed. This is a movie made about women, for women. One woman will be punished, one will be forgiven, one will more or less die and one will be born before the movie ends. You won't be sad to see it end- it's exactly the right length- but you will be both satisfied and perhaps a bit meloncholic.

Count the chick-flick conventions: The revenge on the abusive boyfriend; the three so-different young women bonding; the mother-daughter conflicts; the road trip; the scene where somebody sings "Happy Birthday" to somebody amid much general rejoicing; the adorable baby; the tear-wringing incurable-disease character; etc. It's well-written -- Don Roos, who later wrote the superb screenplay to "The Opposite of Sex," puts more curve on his dialog than most toiling in this genre -- but as with many sisters-united-in-adversity epics, it keeps wanting to yank emotions out of you rather than earn them honestly. The three leads are good, a young Matthew McConnaughey isn't yet annoying, and there are nice turns from Estelle Parsons and Anita Gillette, a Broadway baby decades earlier who matured into a proficient character actress. But Herb Ross is in his take-no-chances mode, and too much of the picture feels programmed and rote.

Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) is a gay night club singer looking to get out of NYC to LA. Real estate agent Robin (Mary-Louise Parker) puts an ad in the papers looking to drive to San Diego with somebody. At first, Jane doesn't get along with Robin, the whitest woman in the world but her car gets towed and she doesn't have many choices. They stop at Pittsburgh to see Jane's flirtatious friend Holly (Drew Barrymore). Holly's boyfriend Nick gets violent and she hits him with a bat. They tie up Nick and go on the road. Nick is found dead and Holly reveals that she's pregnant. Robin is sick with AIDS. The trio settle in Tucson 3 months later. The very pregnant Holly goes out with police officer Abe Lincoln (Matthew McConaughey). Bar owner Alex falls for Robin.

The first half is a road trip like 'Thelma & Louise'. It seems to be going for the same outlaw vibe but then they settled in Tucson. The movie has to restart over again for the second half. I don't like the reboot in the middle of the movie. The missing three months should have some compelling drama. The three actresses are great performers. That's why they do so well together. The second half is not quite so compelling. There are new characters. The trio doesn't always stay together. The trial is like a side trip. The tension from the first half fizzles out in the second half.