'THE WALKER' HEADS IN BAD DIRECTION.

Byline: BOB STRAUSS

>FILM CRITIC

For "The Walker," writer-director Paul Schrader essentially reworks the plot and design elements from his "American Gigolo" in a more politicized and even gayer context.

It really makes "American Gigolo" look good. Dialogue-dependent, hard to fathom and generally poorly acted, this slow-paced D.C.-based murder mystery is a misjudged bore.

No Schrader movie, however, is devoid of intelligent social and psychological observation. His efforts here to link luxuriously appointed, unsavory lifestyles to corrupt brutality by the current ruling crowd don't work, but they lend the effort what little interest it can claim.

Seeming to speak with half a cotton field in his mouth, Woody Harrelson's Carter Page III is the wayward scion of a once-admired, Southern political dynasty. An aging dandy, Car spends most of his time playing canasta and gossiping with the neglected wives of government power brokers.

At night, when he's not escorting one of these ladies to a cultural function her husband despises, Car hangs out at his Arab paparazzo boyfriend Emek's (Moritz Bleibtrau) grungy studio, where the photographer is working on a fine art project involving blow-ups of nude men from Abu Ghraib prison.

Anyway, one afternoon the youngest of Car's lady friends, Lynn (Kristin Scott Thomas), finds her illicit lover stabbed to death. Fearing the scandal any hint of her involvement would bring down on her senator husband (Willem Dafoe), Lynn implores Car to make the 911 call after she's far away from the scene. He agrees. Big mistake.

Or, at least, I think it was. Yes, much like Richard Gere's Gigolo, Car becomes a suspect, gets bullied by the authorities and quickly finds his well-connected friends otherwise engaged (including Lauren Bacall and Lily Tomlin). Otherwise, it's too much work to keep track of what's really going on, who's really done what to whom and why. And this despite the fact that people just explain and explain (when they're not making arch puns) in practically every scene.

"I'm not naive, I'm superficial," Car claims, with irony but also honest pride. The opposite can be said, pretty much, for the movie built around him.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

THE WALKER - Two stars

>R: violence, nudity, language.

>Starring: Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Moritz Bleibtreu, Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Willem Dafoe.

>Director: Paul Schrader

>Running time: 1 hr. 48 min.

>Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Monicas, Santa Monica.

>In a nutshell: Talky, dreary and confounding murder mystery centered on a gay buddy of D.C. society dames.