Wandering Man

Two worlds, muddled ...

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET (incomplete) - As I watched Raoul Ruiz's final film unfold on the big screen, I could see the images dissolve into fizzy bubbles and float away; I could feel everything pass through my brain and fall out of my ears. I saw it just a few days ago, and I can't really tell you anything about it.

So I won't go on. I do remember thinking: This would be great to see in 3-D, to be surrounded by it, embraced by it, swept up into its world. I'd love to see it again; I'd have to in order to properly review it. (I found this review at random, which assesses it about as well as any other would.)

This is the final film of a Chilean master, released after his death, and it's about as perfect a way to go as you could imagine. Don Celso Barra (Sergio Hernandez) is an office worker who apparently reflects on his life (and impending death?) and his interactions with friends, mentors, loved ones -- and even Beethoven and Long John Silver. He constantly insists on being called "Rhododendro," a play on his nickname. We see him as a child. We see him as an old man sitting in a classroom.

Ruiz's camera floats through some scenes. A few of his achingly slow but elegant pans, which cleverly reveal objects off to the side or in the foreground, are magical to behold.  That's all I've got. It was an experience. Maybe you had to be there.

LUV (B) - Vincent (the rapper/actor Common), fresh out of the pen after eight years, takes his 11-year-old nephew Woody (the impressive Michael Rainey Jr.) out on the seedy streets of Baltimore for a day to teach him "real world shit . . . what it takes to be a man . . . handling your business across the board." Vincent purportedly has a real-estate business plan to run past bankers, but his shady past bubbles to the surface before noon, and soon the boy, kitted out in a sharp suit, is knee-deep in adult behavior.

Common carries a movie well, and Rainey keeps up with him. The 24-hour conceit leads to more than one leap of faith that strains the movie's credibility. Director Sheldon Candis (who co-wrote with Justin Wilson) isn't subtle about hammering home the theme of rites of passage. The plot and the interplay of characters can be hard to follow at times. And like most movies in this genre, it shovels its share of macho bullshit. Otherwise, Candis strings together some fine moments. The bulk of the film unfolds like a classy episode of "The Wire," complete with the occasional muffled dialogue.

The supporting cast features a triumvirate of top-notch veterans: Danny Glover, Dennis Haysbert and Charles Dutton (looking shriveled from his "Roc" heyday). They bring class and gravity to a project that could have been just another throwaway slice-of-life crime saga. "LUV" has just enough momentum to string along its small moments to a satisfying conclusion.