Picking up the pieces

CHAD LOWE has always dealt with life in the shadow.

Although he won an Emmy at 25 for his portrayal of a teen dying of AIDS on the series “Life Goes On,” Lowe was better known as the slightly less handsome younger brother of pretty-boy former Brat Packer Rob Lowe, or later as the husband of two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank, who infamously forgot to thank him when she won her first statuette. Since the two announced their split early this year, he’s become the target of the tabloid media, interested not so much in him -- but in the potential mud he might be able to fling at her. (In the media whirl, breakups are all the more fun when they’re bloody.)

But Lowe, 38, isn’t the mud-flinging type. On a recent afternoon, the actor-turned-director seemed more shellshocked than furious at attempts to delve into his personal life. Dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, with Ray-Bans shielding his green eyes, Lowe sat on the Santa Monica beach, surveying the Pacific Ocean. Since the breakup, he’s moved from New York back to California, where he spent most of his childhood growing up in Malibu, amid the rarified company of the Sheens (Charlie, and Emilio Estevez) and the Penns (Sean and the late Chris).

With gleaming white teeth and barely any wrinkles, Lowe could still pass for 25, maybe even younger. The family resemblance is more marked than it seems on screen, and if it weren’t for the eternal comparisons with his brother, Lowe would be considered quite good-looking on his own.

Today, Lowe again finds himself dealing with life in the shadows, but this time it’s through his feature film directorial debut, “Beautiful Ohio.” It screens Nov. 10 as part of the American Film Institute festival.

Based on an Ethan Canin short story -- the author also wrote the screenplay -- “Beautiful Ohio” details how genius skewers family dynamics. Set in 1970s Ohio, it is the story of a teenager coming of age in the wake of his older brother, a surly mathematical genius whose oddity and gift rivet his family.

In the vein of “Ice Storm” or even “Ordinary People,” “Beautiful Ohio” is unsentimental and knowing about unspoken fissures in family life, with strong performances by William Hurt, as the family’s patriarch, and unknowns David Call and Brett Davern as the teenagers. The surprise ending carries the wallop of a good short story.

Even so, Lowe takes a compliment with the wariness of someone who has lived a long time on the red carpet and assumes that most niceties are just hot air. He’s well aware that the movie might seem a little on point to what his own experience has been.

“Yeah,” he says with a wry laugh. “There are clearly many elements that resonated with my own experience. Clearly, that was one of them. I also really responded to the nature of the relationships, not only obviously of the brother trying to find himself in the family, but [of] the parents trying to find themselves, and the kind of dialogue that existed between people, which was intellectual, deep and contemplative. They’re asking questions and searching.”

There are other similarities too. Lowe hails from Dayton, Ohio, and is a child of divorce, and although the film’s family hasn’t reached that state of dissolution, the question of whether the family is headed there hangs over the entire film.

Setting the time and place are recurrent scenes of the Messerman family having dinner together.

“It’s a relic of the past. People don’t do that anymore,” Lowe says. “To me, that spoke of the ‘70s more than any cultural reference -- this family sitting together, having dinner with all of their neuroses and all of their challenges, still trying their very best to relate to each other. That’s what moved me about the story. We see that they’re really missing hearing one another and seeing the signs.”

After four years of development and two years spent trying to raise the financing, “Beautiful Ohio” was finally shot on a shoestring budget in Brooklyn, N.Y., which was subbing for Cleveland. It was largely financed by former NBA all-star Reggie Miller, who has launched his own production company.

Lowe recalls being desperate to become a grown-up. Spending his school year at Point Dume and his summers in Ohio with his father, a litigator, he was deeply influenced by family friend Martin Sheen, who was just cresting into “Apocalypse Now” fame when Lowe was 11.

“I was in a hurry to be grown up by the time I was 14,” he says, and after Santa Monica High, he skipped college and went right to work. He learned the vagaries of show biz early. After winning his Emmy, he thought the jobs would just roll in. He didn’t work for a year and later went on to become a journeyman actor, a guest-starring staple, appearing in the likes of “ER,” “Melrose Place,” “CSI: Miami” and “Without a Trace.” He began directing in 2000, starting with a pair of short films, and moving on to helm episodes of such shows as “Without a Trace” and “Law & Order: SVU.”

HE’S upfront about the fact that directing “Beautiful Ohio” helped him during one of the roughest periods of his life, when his mother died of breast cancer and his relationship with Swank dissolved. They met in 1992, when she was an aspiring actress, and married in 1997. “I’m lucky I had this movie that I was directing at the time. So much of the greatest music has come out of the biggest heartache. You turn to your work,” he says.

Talking to Lowe about the breakup is like talking to a politician who knows he must publicly address rumors -- if only to put them to rest and never have to discuss them again. As he starts to speak about it, his neck immediately seizes up, and he begins rubbing it to calm down.

When Lowe and Swank publicly announced their split in January, the pair appeared destined to have a remarkably low-key celebrity breakup. But then Swank spilled some unsavory beans in July’s Vanity Fair, in which she said that Lowe’s substance-abuse problem contributed to the end of their marriage.

Lowe keeps saying he wasn’t angry about the article, merely “disappointed.”

“Because it’s the truth,” he says, wearily. He says he’s been sober for three years, although he declines to say what he was addicted to. “She didn’t lie. Whether or not that was the cause of the disintegration of the marriage, who knows? I know it wasn’t from my perspective,” he says, adding that she was incredibly “supportive” when he was trying to kick his addiction.

Lowe insists he was never jealous of Swank’s overwhelming success, even when he struggled to find meaningful work. “I always knew that was what she was working to. It wasn’t like she said, ‘I want to be a homemaker and have babies,’ and all of a sudden she ran off to join the circus. I knew that was her dream.... I was always inspired by her success. There have been times when I’ve been frustrated with the opportunities I’ve had. I realized you have to make your own opportunities. That was part of setting out on the course to becoming a director.”

OF course, it’s one of life’s little ironies that, after not acting for two years, Lowe has just landed a part in one of TV’s highest-profile shows: “24.” He plays a White House operative.

As for Swank, he says, “We’re still friends. I will always love her. I know she loves me.

“I don’t know what form our relationship would ever be in the future. For right now, it’s painful.... I’m very, very sad that it didn’t work out. I didn’t propose to her and get married to her thinking if this went eight years, it would be a success.”

In the last few months, Lowe has been hounded by media outlets, ranging from People to Larry King, to speak out about his high-profile breakup. He declined.

Now he says, “Whoever is interested in the record, I want to set it straight. I’m sober. My life is really good.... I’m picking up the pieces of a broken heart and creating a life and trusting that things will work out the way they’re meant to. I have great faith in that.”

rachel.abramowitz@latimes .com

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Coming attractions

“Bobby,” the drama written and directed by Emilio Estevez about the hours leading up to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, kicked off the opening of AFI Fest 2006 and will screen again today at 3:30 p.m. at the ArcLight. In all, the 12-day film festival will present nearly 150 films. Here are some of the highlights:

* A tribute to Penelope Cruz begins at 7 tonight at the Cinerama Dome, preceding the screening of her latest movie, Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver.” The movie, Spain’s official Oscar submission, is an intergeneration story about three women.

* “Inland Empire,” one of the festival’s centerpiece galas, marks the return of director David Lynch. The atmospheric story revolves around an actress, played by Laura Dern, who steps into a role only to find out that the original leads had been murdered. Also stars Harry Dean Stanton and Jeremy Irons. Screens at 9:30 p.m. Friday at the ArcLight.

* “The History Boys,” director Nicholas Hytner’s film based on Alan Bennett’s Tony Award-winning play, stars Richard Griffiths and Clive Merrison. Screens at 6 p.m. Saturday at the ArcLight.

* A screening of the recently discovered “Head Over Heels,” the 1922 silent film starring Mabel Normand. Wednesday at the Linwood Dunn Theater.

* Director Ed Zwick (“Glory,” “The Last Samurai”) screens footage from his upcoming “Blood Diamond,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou, and discusses the making of the political thriller. Wednesday at 7 p.m., at the ArcLight.

* Actor-writer-director Peter Bogdanovich brings his one-man show, “Sacred Monsters,” to the Linwood Dunn Theater at 7 p.m. Nov. 9, offering a guided tour of the various characters he’s encountered during his career in Hollywood.

* A 24-hour movie marathon on the AFI campus starting at noon Nov. 11 begins with a screening of “The Last Picture Show” and will include titles from past AFI film festivals.

* “The Fountain,” Darren Aronofsky’s drama about love, death and spirituality starring Hugh Jackman, Ellen Burstyn and Rachel Weisz, screens Nov. 11 at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and serves as one of the festival’s centerpiece galas.

* The closing-night gala sees writer-director Zhang Yimou reunited with leading lady and former love Gong Li in the world premiere of “Curse of the Golden Flower,” a drama about star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of the Tang Dynasty. Chow Yun Fat also stars. Screens 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Cinerama Dome.

For a complete schedule, go to www.afi.com.