MOVIE REVIEW : Atmospheric ‘Odessa’ a Bit Heavy on Drama

“Little Odessa” is about Russian Jewish emigres in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach, and 26-year-old writer-director James Gray, making his feature film debut, turns the wintry neighborhood into something resembling the steppes. The community is so ingrown that its denizens appear to have transferred all their Old World enmities and passions intact to the New World.

But there’s nothing convivial or warming about the transference. Clearly the Russians who came to America were hoping for something more than this blasted, scrounging existence. They have the world-weary look of souls in torment.

If atmosphere alone made a movie, “Little Odessa” would be first-rate. But Gray doesn’t really trust his own best gifts; he’s so young that he’s trying to work up as many different crosscurrents and plot contrivances as possible, hoping, perhaps, that something will stick and a reputation will be made. The film is a grab bag of melodramatic incident--a high-class resume movie.

Tim Roth plays Joshua, a hit man for the organizatsya, the Russian mob. Banished by his father Arkady (Maximilian Schell) from visiting his family, Joshua nevertheless finds a way to reconnect with his younger brother, Reuben (Edward Furlong), who idolizes him, and his mother Irina (Vanessa Redgrave), who is wracked with a brain tumor.

Joshua is back in the old neighborhood for another reason too. He has one more hit to carry out before he can return to his homeland. It’s a film noir-like development, and, like the hit-man stuff in general, it seems airlifted from a pulpier, more movie-ish scenario. Joshua is a romanticized killer. His love for his brother and his mother and his erotic tenderness toward one of the neighborhood girls (Moira Kelly) are supposed to make him a tragic figure in our eyes. When he and his father come to blows, we’re meant to recognize how the old man’s burly incomprehension of his sons’ lives is to blame.

If only Gray had chucked the low-end gangster material and worked a bit closer to the feel of the streets. If only he risked everyday passions instead of cooked-up ones. The scenes between Joshua and his brother are complexly moving, and, throughout, there is a fine eye at work. Roth is tense and cryptic, and a few of the other performers, including Furlong and Redgrave--although she overdoes the wailing--are strong. (Schell carries on a bit too hammily.) Gray hasn’t filled out the emotional terrain he’s surveyed here. He hasn’t quite grown into the emotions he wants to put on screen. When he does, he’ll come up with something lasting.

* MPAA rating: R, for strong shootings, sexuality and language. Times guidelines: It includes shots of heads being shot apart .

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‘Little Odessa’ Tim Roth: Joshua Shapira Edward Furlong: Reuben Shapira Maximilian Schell: Arkady Shapira Vanessa Redgrave: Irina Shapira A Fine Line Features release. Writer-director James Gray. Producer Paul Webster. Executive producers Nick Wechsler, Claudia Lewis and Rolf Mittweg. Cinematographer Tom Richmond. Editor Dorian Harris. Costumes Michael Clancy. Production design Kevin Thompson. Set decorator Charles Ford. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.

* At selected theaters.