ALERT VIEWER RECKLESS: Black comedy. Starring Mia Farrow, Scott Glenn and Mary-Louise Parker. Directed by Norman Rene. (PG-13. 100 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

This is the third film from writer Craig Lucas and director Norman Rene, who until now have had a splendid track record. They were responsible for "Longtime Companion," a great film, and "Prelude to a Kiss," a very good one.

"Reckless," like "Prelude," is adapted from a Lucas play. It has a fey whimsicality and a more distinct look than previous Lucas/ Rene films. The settings are idyllic and wintry -- picture-postcard versions of Christmastime in the suburbs, with snow falling and perfect snowmen smiling in the neighbors' front yard.

It's against this tranquil-looking background that Lucas and Rene present a darkly comic Christmas tale, whose point is that life is chaotic and messy despite the human tendency to want to put a smiling face on things.


Mia Farrow plays Rachel, who's nattering away happily one Christmas Eve -- "I'm getting one of my euphoria attacks" -- when her husband (Tony Goldwyn) breaks down and confesses: He's taken out a contract on her life, and the hit man is about to arrive any minute.

This kind of turnaround is typical of "Reckless," but this first one is the best. Rachel thinks everything's wonderful, finds out everything's horrible, and ends up fleeing her house in her nightgown and slippers. The snow looked inviting from the window, but outside it's just cold.

Like many movies, "Reckless" is at its best in the beginning, before it discovers its limits and exhausts its bag of tricks. Farrow, who is so much more appealing now that she's unloaded that sneaky boyfriend of hers, is adorably silly as Rachel.


Scott Glenn and Mary-Louise Parker play a social worker and his deaf, paraplegic wife who take Rachel into their family. With Parker silent and signing on screen, I found myself missing her lockjaw Southern accent.

"Reckless" establishes and then repeats a pattern of seeming tranquillity, followed by a Christmas Eve disaster. It's the same movement over and over, and as a result the story, like Rachel, never has time to go forward.

Once you realize that "Reckless" intends only to be one joke repeated, it becomes exhausting. By the time Eileen Brennan shows up as a sympathetic Catholic nun running a soup kitchen (on Christmas Eve), you'd be better off taking knockout drops.