`ADDICTED' TO GOING DARKLY OVER THE TOP.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic

Meg Ryan doesn't just make an entrance in ``Addicted to Love,'' she jumps down through a skylight clad in motorcycle leathers, pulls off her helmet and lashes out with bile-laden invective at the quivering male (Matthew Broderick) who has dared to question her intrusion into his digs.

That should tip you off that this is not, as the overly bland movie posters might have led you to believe, a romantic comedy about wholesome and attractive guys and gals engaged in good, clean fun.

Actually, it's about wholesome and attractive guys and gals engaged in demented, obsessive activities, and that's at the heart of its twisted appeal.

Love has no pride, nor apparently any scruples, which is why Maggie (Ryan) and Sam (Broderick), both recently abandoned by their lovers, have given in to their worst impulses and decided to spy on their exes, a pair of cooing lovebirds who are now nesting together in a New York loft. Sam has set up his observation station in the abandoned building directly across the street, and that's where Maggie first encounters him.

It's a little far-fetched, but this darkly funny comedy, scripted by Robert Gordon, is more about life as we imagine it than life as it is. And who among us hasn't wanted to take the low road in the wake of a stunning romantic betrayal or a devastating desertion?

Maggie, a screw-loose downtown New Yorker, is more than just broken-hearted - she's on a serious revenge mission. ``When I'm done with him, he'll just be a twitchy little stain on the floor,'' she says of Anton (Tcheky Karyo), the smarmy French restaurateur who's laid her low.

Sam, a sweet-natured astronomer just off the bus from Mayberry, R.F.D., is still carrying a torch for his wayward beloved (Kelly Preston, playing a small-town schoolteacher who's grown restless for adventure), and is convinced that at any moment she'll see the error of her ways.

Knowing that opposites attract, and that Maggie and Sam are both so vulnerable, we can predict what's going to happen. But first-time director Griffin Dunne (the actor and star of ``After Hours'') stages the action with enough visual audacity and comic flair to keep it engagingly off-center.

Central to the set-up is a device called a camera obscura, a low-tech method of magnifying and projecting images via light and mirrors. Sam rigs up the gizmo so that the activities of the lovers across the way are projected right onto the wall in his own digs, and settles in to watch the action. Maggie, who's even more ethically challenged, sets out to wire the place for sound. Soon they've got a live-action home movie, and they're munching popcorn while making catty comments about the goings-on across the street.

But there's more - Maggie wants to ruin Anton's life, and Sam has a vested interest in helping her do it. They set out to plant phony evidence that Anton is fooling around on his new love, as well as trying to sabotage his new restaurant (the director's father, writer Dominick Dunne, plays a cameo as a bribable restaurant critic).

The trickiest part for the director is keeping our sympathies on the side of Sam and Maggie, and this is where casting is key. Ryan is simply so appealing and guileless at her core that she's able to take the way-out role to its extreme, and all the while we know she's still a good egg - just a slightly cracked one.

Watching this self-appointed wild child swagger around, trying to make us believe that she's tough as nails, is great fun, and Ryan's technique, timing, and physical take on the role are all tops.

Broderick's role is less showy but just as challenging, requiring him to finesse the transitions from wimp to aggressor to a guy who's sympathetic to his tormentors, and he's just the actor to pull it off.

Karyo, best-known as a bad guy in movies such as ``GoldenEye'' and ``Bad Boys,'' shows a flair for broad comedy, bringing some surprises to the movie's least sympathetic role and handling himself well in a wildly staged fight scene. It's up to him to help move the story from a flat-out revenge saga to an arena of some personal enlightenment and redemption for all concerned, and he does so skillfully.

Romantic comedies are often hard to market, and the posters on this one seem to just tout the cast. But there's also a wicked, contemporary vibe here and a free-form inventiveness that set ``Addicted to Love'' apart from the pack and make it worth going out for.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Addicted to Love'' (R; language, sexual references).

The stars: Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Kelly Preston, Tcheky Karyo.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Griffin Dunne. Written by Robert Gordon. Produced by Jeffrey Silver and Bobby Newmyer. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: One hour, 36 minutes.

Playing: Citywide

Our rating: Three Stars

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Photo

Photo: Sam (Matthew Broderick) and Maggie (Meg Ryan) spy on their former lovers in the romantic comedy ``Addicted to Love.''