THE WHALES OF AUGUST (1987) **1/2 Starring 80- or 90 something Bette Davis and Lillian Gish; so you can figure no car chases, explosions, tennis marathons or rough sex. There are probably some other things absent that might surprise you, but sometimes the surprise is in how few surprises set up the big surprise, and how unsuspecting you'd be that you were only gently surprised. Don't worry if you didn't follow that-or if you did-it's a nice film about aging as gracefully as Bette will allow. Serving up Vincent Price as sheepish and dismantled Russian sub-royalty is a nice touch, and there are many along the way. Lindsay Anderson fills the slots between punctuations of relative inaction that don't scream out how artsy they are, but serve as meditations on aspects of life well lived along similar lines as.more realizing that your mind has wandered than letting it do so. Harry Carey Jr. is wonderful, too, they all are.Lillian Gish is as beautifully expressive as ever.but you probably don't bother watching this film if Bette isn't in it. She is not disappointing, a performance clinic on how to not appear feeble even when you can't see, can't remember, don't quite know what's going on, and know that you'd only see the end of the line if you could see anything. She'll make it an end of the line worthy of herself , you see. I hope you do. Ah Bette, you have to love her. But have you ever seen anyone so desperate for a nap?
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