`BEAUTY' ALL DRESSED UP WITH NOWHERE PLAUSIBLE TO GO.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``Dangerous Beauty'' originally was called ``Courtesan,'' and that certainly would have been a more descriptive title. This historical, um, epic is all dressed up in high-toned finery, but it's pure trash at heart.

Based on an allegedly true biography of a 16th-century professional lady, ``Beauty'' offers a pleasing array of guilty pleasures. It's basically a Harlequin romance, but the kind men like; in other words, it's rife with passion and empowerment fantasies for the gals and lots of flesh and sex for the guys.

No complaints about any of that, especially since our heroine is played by the bounteously beautiful Catherine McCormack (William Wallace's doomed wife in ``Braveheart'') and her true love by the equally pretty Rufus Sewell (``Carrington,'' ``Cold Comfort Farm''). It's all wrapped in a sumptuously faked Venice, a sensuous fairyland of impossibly clean canals, sparkling palazzi and grandly exposed cleavage.

Whenever director Marshall Herskovitz feels that important points must be made, though, matters move from the likably jaunty to the laughably ludicrous. That's partly just his style; Herskovitz co-created such classics of television self-seriousness as ``thirtysomething'' and ``My So-Called Life.''

But it's also a function of the story's fundamental looniness. However historically accurate it may be, the idea that only prostitutes could enjoy full intellectual, economic and political power in Venetian society just plays ridiculously to modern sensibilities.

Of course, McCormack's Veronica Franco does not set out to lead a harlot's life. The vibrant, curious teen-ager - not unlike the California mall rat her expressions resemble - is just a girl in love with a really hot dude, Sewell's rakish aristocrat Marco Venier. Alas, Veronica comes from a poor and slightly soiled family, and even though Marco really loves her, he must make a better marriage for the good of the state.

It's cry, cry, cry once Marco breaks the bad news. But Veronica's mother, Paola (Jacqueline Bisset), has a solution: Become a courtesan like Mom was! You'll make a lot of money. You'll meet all the best men. You'll be let into all the libraries, which the proper ladies of Venice are not permitted to visit. And you'll drive Marco nuts!

Darned if Mom doesn't know best. Soon, Veronica is the toast of the town, and not just because of her sexual prowess. She's also a talented satiric poet, a quality that Marco's poor cousin Maffio (Oliver Platt), who also rhymes for money and can't afford Veronica's favors, resents with increasing fervor.

Veronica has a mean fencing form, too. And when those nasty Turks threaten the city-state's Mediterranean colonies, guess who's drafted into the diplomatic corps. After all, someone has to convince the pervert King of France to lend some ships to Christendom's cause.

All of which, as predicted, drives Marco nuts. But in the right way, toward Veronica's arms. Wouldn't you know, though, just as the happy couple prepares to defy social hypocrisy and make a go of it, the Black Plague appears, followed by the Inquisition.

Isn't that always the way?

The best aspect of ``Dangerous Beauty'' is its assurance that decadence, done right and with enough honest pleasure, can be good for the body and the soul. The worst aspect of it is that, true to puritanical form, this film clearly was made by Americans, and therefore can't conceive of fun without some kind of punishment, and then ethical uplift, attached.

``Dangerous Beauty's'' true agenda is uplift of a thoroughly different sort.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Dangerous Beauty'' (R; nudity, sex, language, violence).

The stars: Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt, Moira Kelly, Jacqueline Bisset, Fred Ward.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Marshall Herskovitz. Written by Jeannine Dominy. Based on the biography ``The Honest Courtesan,'' by Margaret Rosenthal. Produced by Herskovitz, Edward Zwick, Arnon Milchan and Sarah Caplan. Released by Warner Bros.

Running time: One hour, 55 minutes.

Playing: AMC Century 14, Century City; Beverly Connection, West Hollywood.

Our rating: Two and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Marco Venier (Rufus Sewell) is the object of Veronica Franco's (Catherine McCormack) affection in ``Dangerous Beauty.''