MOVIE REVIEW : AN OUTLAW OF THE ‘80S IN ‘WISDOM’

Some movies dazzle you with their achievements; others intrigue you by their promise. Emilio Estevez’s “Wisdom” (citywide) falls into the latter category. You’d have to stretch hard to call this movie--a young-love-on-the-run chase thriller with political undercurrents--a success. The story often lacks credibility or a mainspring; its heart sticks too hard to its sleeve. But there are compensating factors: warmth, guts, ambition.

Estevez, in trying to revive the mix of violence, social context and lyricism in ‘60s-’70s classics like “Bonnie and Clyde” or “Badlands,” gets stranded too often on the fluffier, drier, safer shores of the ‘80s. The movie’s ironically named protagonist, John Wisdom (Estevez), needs more of his namesake quality, but so does the film. It seems more felt than thought out. (This despite the presence of another sagacious namesake, Robert Wise, as executive producer.)

Estevez’s Wisdom is a social victim turned social avenger: a jobless youth who begins assaulting banks and destroying mortgage-and-loan records, to the fervent applause of an economically strapped populace. Like those earlier movie outlaws, Wisdom gets trapped in his reckless drive, undone by his legend. But, unlike them, he’s free of too much anti-hero stigma. The one killing is accidental; when he steals, it’s from direst necessity. He’s more a squeaky-clean crusader, a rebel without claws.

Estevez is dealing with two strong subjects: the frustrations of the American underclass and the dangerous temptations of media fame. As Wisdom and his lover-accomplice Karen (Demi Moore) spread their mortgage-burning spree, they become adored mass icons, villains only to the conservative media and the dogged FBI agents pursuing them. Fame is a trap, Estevez keeps suggesting, and both he and Moore have lines where they deny being, or wanting to be, movie stars.

Even so, they sound more like stars, or children of privilege, than lower-middle-class kids backed into a corner. Their “tough” badinage and double-entendre has a sleek saltiness that hints at Santa Monica more than suburbia. In a way, the movie seems split in two. Part of it is a poignant study of a frustrated youth whose early felony conviction makes him an outsider; the rest, when it isn’t too outlandish, often suggests a young, rich couple on an idealistic crime spree--perhaps financed, unknowingly, by their parents.

And, though the movie has a last-minute twist, and framework, which seems to neatly explain away all the plot incongruities, you still have a hard time with the premises. Wisdom’s rebellion is weirdly circumscribed. He’s so down he’s fired from jobs as janitor and fast-food grill cook, yet, until the end, he refuses to loot money from the banks he’s holding up. (You can imagine a character behaving that way, but he’d probably be more fanatical or fastidious than the one here.)

Despite all this, as the feature debut of a 23-year-old actor-writer-director, this movie is sometimes impressive. It may be flawed, but you can guess that Estevez will one day make excellent films. (To make a quick, “odious” comparison, “Grand Theft Auto”--which Ron Howard wrote, directed and starred in at 23--looks weak next to “Wisdom,” even allowing for a leaner budget.)

Estevez’s acting, as in “Repo Man,” “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” has a crackling lucidity, a blend of high energy and cool observation. And, as a director, he’s able to help guide his actors to the same pitch: Demi Moore, Tom Skerritt and Veronica Cartwright as his parents, William Allen Young as his pursuer. The film has been well shot (by Adam Greenberg) and extremely well cut (by Michael Kahn), and it has a terrific score by Oingo Boingo’s Danny Elfman. Its better qualities--the high spirits, idealism, sarcasm and tenderness--seem to reflect its director. In that respect, he seems increasingly son to his father: actor Martin Sheen.

It’s as a writer that Estevez flounders--and that may be partially the fault of the people who should have advised or counseled him on his original screenplay. Next time out, perhaps, he should try to hook up with an experienced young playwright or novelist. With a fine, fully worked-out script, he might be ready to really burn down the banks.

‘WISDOM’

A 20th Century Fox release of a Gladden Entertainment presentation. Producer Bernard Williams. Director Emilio Estevez. Script Estevez. Executive producer Robert Wise. Editor Michael Kahn. Camera Adam Greenberg. Production design Dennis Gassner. Music Danny Elfman. With Demi Moore, Estevez, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, William Allen Young.

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.

MPAA rating: R (under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian).