friendly bartender who’s interested in Robin, that she has HIV. Feeling betrayed, Robin asks Jane to move out. When Abe proposes to Holly, Holly confesses about Nick. Abe finds the photo Holly took and arrests her, despite his vow that he still intends to marry her. Holly is returned to Pittsburgh to stand trial for murder. Jane and Robin follow her to Pittsburgh and make peace with each other in the courthouse. Holly accepts a plea bargain offer of involuntary manslaughter with one to two years in prison. Robin collapses after the trial from a lung infection, and in the hospital, Jane and Robin pledge love for each other. Holly gives birth to a daughter named Mary Todd and finishes serving her sentence. She and Abe marry and return to the house in Tucson for a welcome home party. Holly is shocked to find Robin weakened by the advanced stage of AIDS and in a wheelchair. At the party, Robin weakly tries to sing the Roy Orbison song "You Got It" to Jane, and Jane gently finishes the song. In the final scene, Robin has died from AIDS, Holly and Abe plan to stay in Arizona and raise a family, and Jane hits the road to seek a new life in Los Angeles. Cast Whoopi Goldberg as Jane DeLuca Mary-Louise Parker as Robin Nickerson Drew Barrymore as Holly Pulchik Matthew McConaughey as Abe Lincoln James Remar as Alex Billy Wirth as Nick Anita Gillette as Elaine Nickerson Dennis Boutsikaris as Massarelli, Prosecuting Attorney Estelle Parsons as Louise Amy Aquino as Anna Reception Boys on the Side received a positive response from critics. The film was entered into the 19th Moscow International Film Festival. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3-and-a-half stars, writing:The reviews for "Boys on the Side" will mention Fried Green Tomatoes and Thelma and Louise, because it shares their assorted themes: female bonding, unexpressed love, women on the run. But this movie is not a collection of parts from other films. It's an original, and what it does best is show how strangers can become friends, and friends can become like family.<p> To get to know someone is very difficult, but if you really do, they should be able to tell you almost anything, and ask you almost anything, and that is where "Boys on the Side" is leading us. Box office The film was not a