
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997           TAG: 9702260054

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

ACTING ADMIRABLE IN MOVING ``ROSEWOOD''

SOME OF THE promise of director John Singleton is realized in the epic look and period detail of ``Rosewood.'' Singleton, at 23, was the youngest director ever nominated for an Academy Award. His tough, uncompromising look at urban blight in ``Boyz N the Hood'' was a debut that left the moviegoing public expecting great things from him. In the six years since, he has turned out only the decidedly unimpressive ``Poetic Justice'' and ``Higher Learning.''

The ante is upped to the max with ``Rosewood,'' a film that opens with a credit firmly declaring that it is ``based on a true story.''

The story of Rosewood, the prosperous black central-Florida town that was destroyed by a racially bigoted mob in 1923, is an authentic American tragedy. It is a story that needs to be told - a story of inherrent human dimension. But, above all, it is a tragedy. To try to turn it into a film with an upbeat ending would be a stretch. To emphasize action rather than emotion would be a disservice.

Although Singleton's film has many fine points, he ultimately sells out to commercialism. There are chases on horseback, in cars, and in trains. There is a Lone Ranger-type hero who, literally, is a Mann with no first name. There are surprise plot twists, with a supporting character coming back from the dead (although this reportedly is grounded in fact). With each phony heroic, the script gets further from the human dimension that should be the center.

At the same time, there is much that is admirable in this film - namely the technical credits and, for the most part, the acting. The cinematography, by Johnny Jensen, is a muted vision that immediately evinces another era. Props and costumes do much to convince us that this is an earlier America. Singleton serves notice with this film that his ambitions are larger than the single subject of urban drama, and that he is fully capable of helming a production this size.

Fueled by the town tramp's claim that she was attacked by a black man, the poor white residents of Sumner, a sawmill town, rise up in arms against the more prosperous black residents of nearby Rosewood. The ``facts'' of the case have been tragically clouded. Debatable are the number of whites living in Rosewood (the film suggests only one white family, a mercenary store clerk played by Jon Voight); the number of casualties (anywhere from eight to 140); and just about every other possible detail. The important thing, though, should not be challenging pesky details but whether or not the film captures the spirit of mindless hysteria that takes over a group of people and turns them into a mob.

Mob hysteria was best evinced, in film, by ``The Ox-Box Incident,'' a '40s treatment of a lynching. That depth is not found here.

The actors are mostly on target. Ving Rhames suggests a macho, silent heroism in the fabricated role of Mann, but the script doesn't allow him to develop a full character. Voight, in his best role in years, suggests some of the dual trauma of the storekeeper who is there primarily to make money, but eventually aids his fleeing neighbors. Don Cheadle, who was so good in ``Devil in a Blue Dress,'' plays the militaristic Sylvester Carrier, but he is given too little to do. Esther Rolle is highly sympathetic but she repeats the matriarch role she has often played before.

A character who could have been at the heart of the drama is Sheriff Walker, a weak man who seemingly wants to control the mob but, instead, goes along with the mania. Michael Rooker is on to something with his portrayal but, once again, the film doesn't trust its audience to fill in the gaps. Everything is obvious - either saints or sinners.

And all ending with a Wild West chase.

``Rosewood'' is a story that is much in need of telling. Its human dimensions did not need phony heroics. For the truth, particularly about the years that followed Rosewood, you might check Mike D'Orso's book ``Like Judgment Day: The Ruin and Redemption of a Town called Rosewood.'' In this case, the facts are much more moving than this handsome, but overly melodramatic, film. ILLUSTRATION: WARNER BROS.

Jon Voight plays a storekeeper who helps his neighbors in

``Rosewood.''

MOVIE REVIEW

``Rosewood''

Cast: Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Esther Rolle, Catherine Kellner,

Don Cheadle, Akousua Busia, Michael Rooker

Director: John Singleton

Screenplay: Gregory Poirier

Music: John Williams

MPAA rating: R (violence, sexuality)

Mal's rating: **1/2