Cinema: A Fun Feminist Goes to War

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Linda Voss (Melanie Griffith) is your typical late-model feminist heroine -- brave, bright, spirited, sassy and clearly overqualified for her secretarial job. She is also -- what else? -- hopelessly in love with her boss, Ed Leland (Michael Douglas). At once distracted and self-absorbed, he can't see why she wants a promotion, and he's a little too casual about their love affair. On the first score he has a point: the job she aspires to is spying. In Berlin. During World War II. Maybe she is a bit too spunky for her own good. But not for the good of SHINING THROUGH. She's a terrific character, and it's a terrific idea to project her anachronistically back into the kind of improbable melodrama that made home-front life during the war so entertaining. Indeed, Linda borrows some of her best espionage tricks from the Hollywood thrillers to which she's addicted. At a certain point, writer- director David Seltzer, finding himself with too many obligations to an overcomplicated plot, forgets to keep up Linda's perky, amusing spirits. But he's a basically lively and knowing guy, and, on balance, Shining Through is a cheerfully suspenseful entertainment. R.S.