Lovelorn, Headstrong

By RICHARD CORLISS

To Claudia Draper (Barbra Streisand), love is felonious assault, and she has the open wounds to prove it. Her mother's plaintive "I love you" may be a threat or a curse. Her stepfather's caress may have been foreplay to child abuse. Her ex-husband's ardor may have sheathed sexual brutality. Indeed, the smothering affections of all people may have driven Claudia nuts. That is why she sits edgily in a New York City courtroom, at a hearing to determine if she is competent to stand trial on a manslaughter charge. Claudia is a $500-an- hour call girl, and her "victim" was an aging john -- one more man who believed that pain is at the core of love.

At its best, Nuts is a picture that has much to say about the corrupting power of possessive love. But as adapted for Streisand by Tom Topor and veteran Screenwriters Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent, it too often surrenders to the banalities of its genre. For Nuts exemplifies one kind of Hollywood high-mindedness: the "I'm O.K. Because Society Says I'm Not O.K." movie. The protagonist is not insane, merely misunderstood by those who impose rules she refuses to play by. Every time an authority figure declares she is incompetent, her sanity is supposed to be affirmed. This is no-risk psychodrama. And no drama as well, because Claudia's moral superiority is too easy to spot.

Ignore this considerable defect, and you can take solemn pleasure in Director Martin Ritt's familiar craftsmanship. You can enjoy the strong performance by Richard Dreyfuss (as Claudia's public and private defender). You may even smile at Streisand's straining to create another movie metaphor for her own fettered Hollywood eminence. Claudia, like Yentl before her, is a smart, sexy woman whose place of respect the boys in power want to deny. Streisand, who has both power and respect, might be advised to use that leverage on a project less conventional and complacent than this very mixed Nuts.