SWING SHIFT

(Warner Bros.)

Goldie Hawn is doing her sejf-growth bit again. This time she�s the sweetly ditzy housewife who becomes a beer-swillin� foreman at the McBride aircraft factory while hubby�s off fighting the Japs. But the real war in this film was waged offscreen and it�s something of a miracle that despite all the rewrites and reshoots the film still swings. Kudos to director Jonathan Demme for a nearly obsessive eye and ear for period detail and brilliantly panoramic crowd scenes. He�s coaxed the least cutesy performance from Goldie since Sugarland Express and whips Kurt Russell. Ed Harris and Christine Lahti into an incredibly effective ensemble. Jeez, he even snuck Go-Go Belinda Carlisle into a teensy role as a �40s band singer! Like his previous efforts. Swing Shift is a warmly human comedy with enough emotional depth and visual impact to escape the dreaded �nostalgia� tag. And so what if the story just sort of lumbers along predictably? The images are as memorable and evocative as spending an afternoon leafing through a stack of vintage Life magazines.D.K.

RACING WITH THE MOON

(Paramount)