For decades, the British have produced scores of gritty comedy-dramas about life among the less-fortunate, several of which have crossed the Atlantic to become popular successes: "Secrets and Lies" and "The Full Monty" are the most obvious recent examples. "Girls' Night" is from the same school, although not in the same class. It does, however, offer a couple of sterling performances by Brenda Blethyn (the long-suffering mom from "Secrets and Lies") and Julie Walters (best-known in this country for her Oscar-nominated work in 1983's "Educating Rita"). They make engaging company as Jackie and Dawn, sisters-in-law who work side by side on an assembly line at an electronics factory, trapped beneath a huge sign that keeps an up-to-date report of how far behind they are on their quotas. Salty-tongued Jackie (Walters) rushed down the aisle because of an unplanned pregnancy and now tries to compensate for a miserable marriage by having an on-and-off affair with the manager of the local bingo hall. When Dawn (Blethyn) isn't at the factory, she's at home, trying to keep some peace amongst her rowdy children. Both women are stuck in a largely dreary northern England town, and though they may daydream about taking off on a luxurious holiday, they know those kinds of things don't happen to the working class. Things seem to be taking a turn for the better when Dawn has a stroke of good fortune at bingo and wins over $160,000, but just when the two should be breaking out the champagne, there's tragic news and it turns out that if Dawn and Jackie are ever going to have that big fling, they'd better do it quickly. Blethyn's musical voice and melancholy smile are well-suited to Dawn's self-sacrificing personality and she radiates motherly warmth and good humor. Walters, whose movies have gone unseen on these shores lately, tells us all we need to know about Jackie in her slight swagger and the barely restrained bitterness that tinges her every word. Neither woman is glamorous or even conventionally attractive but their compelling personalities keep us hooked, wondering what's going to happen to them. Both actresses are far more vibrant than Kay Mellor's screenplay, which is rather mired in gloom. Though the story is essentially simple, Mellor goes to considerable pains to slow it down, as if she was afraid the audience might not catch every dismal detail. The film perks up markedly when Dawn and Jackie find themselves swept up in the bright lights and high stakes of Las Vegas, where they encounter rodeo star Cody (a puffy Kris Kristofferson), a charming alternative to the dullish men they're used to. Although the female characters ring true, this is the kind of movie in which there are two kinds of males: the hunks and the lunks. Small wonder it's called "Girls' Night." James Sanford
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