Dark and Light: A Love Story

Grim, joyless and mostly friendless, Edmund Naughton is a white divorcé who buries himself in his work as a computer programmer and lives a solitary life on New York's Upper West Side. He impulsively offers shelter to Careese, a recovering black alcoholic, who is homeless, has little education and is shakily attempting to stand on her own. It's an edgy arrangement: Careese has a relationship with the building's super and can't keep her pusher brother Camron from hanging out in the apartment; Edmund, with the pretext of rendering Careese productive in the workplace, buys her sensible clothes and grooms her for a secretarial job, but is already growing emotionally attached. Despite a surface aversion to each other, they share a bond as wounded parents: Careese's 10-year-old daughter has been taken away from her because of a careless, drunken burning incident; Edmund 's college-age daughter hates him for failing to save her from her abusive stepfather. Laser (Old Friend Old Pal ) overplays their nagging black-white assumptions about each other (and about secondary characters like Careese's ex-DeVaughn). Though moments in their relationship ring true, the whole has a schematic feel. (Sept.)