THEY ASKED, SHE TOLD

By GINIA BELLAFANTE

IF MARGARETHE CAMMERMEYER WERE a heroine in a fictional TV movie of the week, critics might chide the writers for inventing a character so hyperbolically resolute. After all, how believable is a venerated female Army colonel who raises four fine sons, runs a seizure clinic, attains a doctorate in nursing at 49, and then makes a career of challenging the military's antigay policy?

Cammermeyer, of course, is not the creation of a high-minded television dramatist. She is the very real, intensely ambitious Army nurse dismissed from the military in 1992 after revealing that she was a lesbian. Serving in Silence, an upcoming TV movie (Feb. 6, 9 p.m., nbc) based on Cammermeyer's book of the same name, is the fittingly earnest account of her coming out and her subsequent efforts to remain in the Army.

Produced by Barbra Streisand and Glenn Close, who stars as Cammermeyer, the story begins when the colonel meets beret-wearing Los Angeles artist Diane Divelbess, played by an atypically serene Judy Davis. Cammermeyer, 46 and divorced, is working on her Ph.D. and serving as chief nurse of the Washington State National Guard when Diane gently rocks her world and then sets it right.

The depiction of their relationship, astonishingly devoid of stereotype, is the movie's greatest strength. The women interact in a manner that is tender and uncontrived, and neither is ever seen listening to Melissa Etheridge or reading Sisterhood Is Global. Despite the women's differences, the viewer does not question their love. They offer each other a sense of peace, and the heroine seems to have, for the first time in her life, another's unflinching support.

Unfortunately, the portrayal of Cammermeyer the careerist is handled less deftly than the portrayal of Cammermeyer the awakened lover. What Serving in Silence fails to explore sufficiently is the origin of Cammermeyer's fierce drive and commitment to the military even after she is discharged. Cammermeyer, who is still fighting for her reinstatement, disclosed her sexual orien-tation during a top-security-clearance interview required before she could apply to the Army's War College. Close delivers lines like "I want to be a general" and "I'm going to change the regulations, Diane" with little or no emotion, and we never get a sense of the professional passion that surely fuels this woman's determination.

In general, Close conveys the unflappability of Cammermeyer at the expense of her spirit. Nevertheless, Cammermeyer's story provides enough inherent drama to make Serving in Silence far better than the typical TV movie of the week.