'KINGDOM' HAS CHARM, BUT IT IS SHORT-LIVED.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

A patriarch's death sets off a contentious family reunion in ``Kingdom Come,'' a lightweight, generally pleasant dramedy based on the popular play ``Dearly Departed'' by screenwriters David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones.

Though hardly deep or very clever, this African-American ensemble piece does have one advantage over the usual, ain't-wakes-wacky fare is the welcome absence of any inheritance fight. Members of the extended Slocumb family, while hardly decorous in the face of big daddy Woodrow Bud's passing, are all having trouble with basic life issues. And while money is certainly the root of some of those, it's refreshing to see a funeral film in which greed never rears its head.

It would have been more refreshing, though, if most everybody's problems weren't so simplistically presented and neatly tied up.

One hot summer morning in the Central Valley hamlet of Lula, Woodrow Bud keels over at the breakfast table after being informed that his Bible- thumping sister, Marguerite (Loretta Devine), intends to spend the afternoon trying to save his soul. The man's death comes as a relief to his stoic wife, Raynelle (Whoopi Goldberg), whose only minor display of irrationality throughout the whole story is to insist that the words ``Mean and Surly'' be carved on her husband's tombstone.

How such an apparently undemonstrative pair as Woodrow and Raynelle came to have so many volatile relatives is a question the movie never answers. Their sons Ray Bud (LL Cool J) and Junior (Anthony Anderson) have, respectively, a drinking problem and a tendency to gamble his financial future on harebrained business schemes. Both have troubled marriages, too: the generally responsible Ray Bud to the sweet and nurturing Lucille (Vivica A. Fox), who is not-so-secretly devastated by her inability to bear children; the less-reliable Junior to the shrill, quite vocally unhappy Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith), who has given him three uncontrollable boys and hates living in a trailer.

Overbearing Marguerite, for her part, is mighty displeased with her mildly wayward son Royce (Darius McCrary), whom she fears will wind up in prison like his brother if Jesus doesn't do something about it soon. Adding to the stress are assorted other, single-note friends and family, a couple of gouging undertakers and a preacher, played with a lisp by Cedric the Entertainer, whose fondness for Mexican food is matched by his inability to digest it.

Director Doug McHenry (``Jason's Lyric'') evidently encouraged most of the actors to play it as broad and showily as they could. The exceptions to this rule are Goldberg, as mentioned, and LL Cool J, most impressively. As a decent but troubled guy tortured beyond his capacity to cope with the death of a father he never really loved, the rapper/actor builds the film's only completely realized character with care and deft, well-judged skill. While ``Kingdom Come'' is nothing to shout about, grace notes such as his are worth some quiet hallelujahs.

``KINGDOM COME''

(Rated PG: language, mild violence, adult situations)

The stars: LL Cool J, Whoopi Goldberg, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Anthony Anderson, Loretta Devine, Darius McCrary, Cedric the Entertainer, Toni Braxton.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Doug McHenry. Written by David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones, based on their play ``Dearly Departed.'' Produced by John Morrissey and Edward Bates. Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 34 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars

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Darius McCrary is the ne'er-do-well son of Loretta Devine in ``Kingdom Come.''