The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 7

THE BOSTON GLOBE SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1981 7 mat today 2pm ANN LANDERS IVV Press opening tonite -8 pm NVU mattomW.at3pm NOWTHRU JULY 19 ONLY PHONE CHARGE 542-3600 Open letter to mother GROUP SALES (617) 4264444 TICKETRON REVIEW I MOVIE MEJROPOUTAN CENTER Our Bubbles exhibit is good clean fun. if 268IRtMONT ST BOSTON. MA 02116 Dear Ann Landers: We know you can't possibly print all the letters you receive, but I hope you will find the space for this one. It is a letter to our mother. We've made it an open letter, so those who find its contents familiar might "IT IS THAT RARITY OF RARITIES, A SEQUEL THAT READILY SURPASSES THE ORIGINAL LO TZ bar mm UJ Iff i I Wa I fc "Wmmmtm a immimnrmi i mt 1 3S Wti.iiinw mi A 33 IP I iSlk.

RICHARD SCHICKEL, TIME MAGAZINE 0' 1 iiL Pgimi ALEXANDER SALKiND MlffliMISIIffliVE W-jj 'iWjX NEB BEATTY JACKIE COOPER SARAH GOUGLAS Clark Kent lays aside his mild manners when Superman heroics are called for. 'Superman IF is a sure bet tilm has to break away for a stunt, leaving you feeling depressed and depleted. One of the most interesting things about the film is the chemistry between Superman (Christopher Reeve) and Lois Lane (Kidder). Their relationship is developed to the point where Superman, infatuated, trades in his superpowers for the opportunity to live a life with the woman he's fallen in love with. It's a fascinating emotional moment, a somewhat classic confrontation between masculinity and femininity.

Yet it's never exploited or developed. It seems to be treated as nothing more than a lull in the action. The scenario in "Superman II" involves a series of confrontations between Superman and three Darth Vader-like villains. The special effects, numerous as they are, are less imaginative than they were in the original. And they are never as compelling as the dynamic between the characters.

At the conclusion of the film. Reeve, who has reverted from Superman back to the mild-mannered Clark Kent, removes his glasses and gives Kidder a long, lingering, tender kiss. When Reeve removes his glasses, he's kidding decades of romantic comedies in which the leading lady always had her glasses taken off for her kiss by her leading man. The moment is sublime, both cinematically and romantically. It resonates more than any crash or explosion in the film.

SUPERMAN II Directed by Richard Lester, starring Gene Hackman and Christopher Reeve, with Margot Kidder, at the Cinema 57 and suburbs, rated PG. By Bruce McCabe Globe Staff Except for half a dozen witty one-liners seeded all too infrequently throughout this ponderous special effects opera, there's no compelling reason for a thinking adult to see it. 1 say this even though, when placed up against the shouts and cheers of a theater-full of kids, it seems beside the point. Like the first "Superman," this one is less than memorable. It's a pastiche of special effects set-pieces, some more diverting than others.

But the enterprise that went into "Superman didn't go into it encumbered by what I might think. The makers of this film know their audience. The film is safe. It won't lose money. "Superman II" is better than the original, although it's like saying cod liver oil is better than castor oil.

What redeems the sequel is the occasional humor. My favorite line is Margot Kidder's: "God. not only have I lost my mind but I've lost my comb!" (My next-favorite is Gene Hackman's: "I want my Liberace record back -tonight." In fact, as long as I'm into it, I might as well list some other lines I liked: Kidder's: "Gee, real polyester," and Kidder's sobbing injunction to Superman after he tells her he has to leave her: "Don't tell me I'll meet somebody else. You're kind of a tough act to The problem is that the film is too unwieldy to maintain any consistency of humor or tone. Whenever the relationships start to develop, the benefit.

Here's to you. Mom, for all the dreams you dreamed for us. We never became the ballerinas or vocalists or pianists or doctors or lawyers you hoped we would be. We never married millionaires or learned to speak 10 languages. Instead, we are the children who forgot to say "thank you" when it probably would have meant a lot to you.

We are the ones who talked when we should have listened. We are the little tykes who woke you before dawn to serve you the breakfast-in-bed birthday special burned toast, weak tea, unscrambled eggs and the old chew-it-if-you-can bacon. Of course, we sang "Happy Birthday, Mommy." Our childhood is over and here are the "thank-yous," many years overdue. Thank you for being there when we needed you for being our tower of strength when you needed support yourself. Thank you for believing in us.

Thank you for saying what we needed to hear and for knowing when silence meant more than words. Thank you for giving us the chance to dream our own dreams, even though your dreams were more glamorous. Thank you for giving us room to grow and to learn from our own mistakes. We are Tour Loving Children What a beautiful tribute! I hope this column is mailed to thousands of mothers all over the world. 100-year struggle Continued from preceding page Mary Grefe's history of increasing activism parallels that of the AAUW in the three decades since she joined.

After its revolutionary beginnings, the AAUW had entered a period of prosperous passivity by the '50s, when young, college-educated mothers like Grefe joined the AAUW "in droves" seeking respite from conversations with 2-year-olds about "bow-wows" and "going potty." But as a "doer," she eventually became fed up with all talk. "We were all interested in our own intellectual growth, but heaven forfend we should do something with it. By the time the '60s came along, I was disgusted with the AAUW and ready to drop out. The campuses were on fire, and we were doing book reviews!" But in 1967 the AAUW redirected itself toward social action, and Grefe's involvement grew. "1 became very interested in what contributions an educated person could make." Of course, Grefe had been making contributions all along.

"But they were the wrong kind," she says now. "We weren't taking on the system. If children weren't learning in school, we believed it was the AAUW's role to tutor them -which we did in the '50s instead of getting after the school board and asking why they weren't reading." Grefe ran for the school board, served 12 years, went on to chair the White House Advisory Council on Adult Education and learned her way around Washington. After her term expires in July, Grefe plans to devote herself full-time politically to supporting pro-ERA candidates as a member of the Women's Political Caucus. "And I'm going to campaign for pro-ERA candidates, whether or not they're Republicans," she said.

If so, hers may be the first Democratic vote ever cast in her family. But when she broke the news at a family gathering, she said the aunts and the cousins were surprisingly sympathetic. "I think this Administration has badly underestimated the women's movement," she said, her arms folded. As a nonprofit organization, the AAUW cannot support political candidates. Grefe thinks the AAUW could serve as "a think tank on women's issues." But she also wonders out loud if it should spin off a political action committee that could support candidates, as the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs has done.

Such a committee would have a separate board of directors and pay taxes. After three decades of asking contributions an educated person can make" and observing the political victories of the Moral Majority Grefe has come to see issues increasingly in terms of "political battles." Whatever the outcome, her view of the AAUW's role is closer to that of the crusading founders at MIT 100 years ago than to that of the coffee-klatchers of the 1950s. DENNIS THE MENACE 31 KIHO JACK 0 HALLORAN VALERIE HE SUSANNAH IK Eiifi jams Marshall hm km OOLBY STEPCqj in SfitCiEDiMeaiiifS 'Mitiitii ie JOHN BARRY Ik KEN THORN in im MARIO PUZO MARIO PUZO DAVID WW NEWMAN PIERRE SPENGIER kn.fiiAR0 tESIEfl ALEXANDER SAEKI CDC COMICS Inc 9B1 If ijiiai Satai Track Hnailailt ai Warier hs. lecaris i hits. PG'parentalguioance Suggested SOMC MATCRiAc IU NOT SUITABLE FOM CHMJXH.H Distributed by Warner Bros A Warner Communtcalons Company DOLBY OOLBY 70 MM DOLBY Tinki BOSTON OBIGilUL COHEDT SHOWCASE QSWfCDMECJlotl 888 Trmoal Bosloi.

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