`BEAUTY' MISSES EMOTIONAL MARK.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``Stealing Beauty'' will definitely appeal to dirty old men and a generation of young ones - specifically, those who've come of age watching the movie's coltish star, Liv Tyler, romp through her dad Steven's Aerosmith videos.

But they're about the only folks likely to get excited about this paper-thin movie. It all concerns Liv's 19-year-old virgin, Lucy, romping through Tuscany in search of her first sexual experience. Not an unpromising premise, especially when dreamed up by Bernardo Bertolucci, a director who knows a few things about sex and its impact on behavior.

But the only behavior on display in this sunny Italian idyll is the inordinate amount of attention, if precious little mental effort, the residents of a hilltop artists' colony lavish on separating their American visitor from her innocence. Mostly free-living friends of Lucy's recently deceased poet mother, smoking dope and swimming nude have been their main recreational activities for too many summers. Her ripe appearance literally wakes them all up - and not just because she arrives during siesta time.

Everyone quickly zeros in on her perceived predicament, the women going into matchmaking overdrive while the men mostly downshift into hopeless seduction gear. Among them are the Irish erotic sculptor Ian (Donal McCann), who is supposed to do Lucy's portrait; his wife, Diana (Sinead Cusack), a kind of easygoing earth mother for the whole little group; and the English writer Alex Parrish (Jeremy Irons), who's dying and wittier than the rest and, of course, revived a bit by Lucy's life-force presence. ``You're my personal, walking I.V.,'' he tells her, sardonic and affectionate to the end.

As for Lucy, her designated hitter is the rich Italian boy she met on an earlier visit. Of course, if that all went according to plan, Bertolucci and novelist Susan Minot, who wrote the screenplay based on his idea, would have even less of a plot than the wispy thing they wound up with. To complicate things at least a little more, Lucy is also convinced that one of the older men is her real biological father.

None of this adds up to much emotionally. To distract us from this lack, there are lots of hearty meals and half-baked romantic betrayals and a party at a nearby palazzo that strains for decadent, Fellini-esque whimsy. But Bertolucci is a very serious personality, as ``Last Tango in Paris'' and ``The Conformist,'' his '70s masterpieces of sexual psychology, so devastatingly demonstrate. A light look at elementary eroticism is not what he does best.

As for Tyler, she does what little is demanded of her just fine. Playing a smart but hardly complicated young woman, she radiates the necessary sensuality without much strain or misplaced dignity. Still, her pleasant screen persona isn't really anything special. It lands somewhere between Sandra Bullock's (sexier but not as charming) and Ava Gardner's (ethereal where Ava was earthy), two actresses Tyler also physically resembles.

Without making too many demands on its star or its audience, ``Stealing Beauty'' is an easy-to-take dose of lite libertinism. But, lacking any real dramatic weight or special sparkle, it's just as easy to leave.

The facts The film: ``Stealing Beauty'' (R; nudity, language, drug use, sex).

The stars: Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack, Donal McCann.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Written by Bertolucci and Susan Minot. Produced by Jeremy Thomas. Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 59 minutes.

Playing: Goldwyn Pavilion, West L.A.; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Cineplex Odeon Broadway, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Two stars