`BELOVED' TRUE TO MORRISON'S NOVEL ABOUT FREED SLAVES.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

Faithful (to a fault) to Toni Morrison's 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Jonathan Demme's shockingly vivid ``Beloved'' shows the devastating physical, emotional and spiritual scars that slavery left upon newly freed African-American slaves following the Civil War. The film is far from a historical epoch, though; in fact, its claustrophobic tone hews closer to the theatrical works of Ibsen, Chekov and Eugene O'Neill in the way it intricately probes its characters' damaged psyches. This is a brave film, accomplished in many aspects, flawed in others, a movie - whether you like it or not - that will stay with you long after the house lights go up.

Oprah Winfrey easily sheds her icon status to play Sethe, a middle-aged woman who lives with the all-too-vivid reminders of her legacy as a slave. Sethe ran away from her Kentucky plantation in 1865 to escape the horrible cruelties inflicted by her owners. But when we first see her, it's clear that the horror has followed her to rural Ohio.

Sethe's home is haunted by the spirit of her daughter, who was murdered when she was 2 years old. In scenes straight out of ``The Exorcist,'' furniture moves violently across the room, plates crash and the family dog flies along the walls with one eye bulging from its socket. It's enough to prompt Sethe's two older sons to leave the house for good and for her neighbors to shun the place completely.

Staying behind with Sethe is her other daughter, Denver (Kimberly Elise), a sheltered, fragile young woman who is understandably disturbed by her home, but, at the same time, afraid to leave it and venture into the outside world. Sethe is determined to keep her one remaining child from harm. ``I will never run from another thing on this Earth,'' she says, even as her haunted home violently shakes beneath her.

It's an awful way to live, but then Sethe is a woman well beyond harboring any hope for joy and pleasure from this life. However, her attitude slowly begins to change when an old friend from Kentucky, Paul D (Danny Glover), arrives. A kindhearted man who shared the burden of slavery with Sethe on the planation, Paul D has been wandering for years and sees an opportunity for stability with Sethe and her daughter. He soon ingratiates his way into their lives, and his affections are returned.

The past, though, is never far away, and one day a feral, teen-age woman who calls herself Beloved (Thandie Newton) turns up on Sethe's doorstep, drooling, wheezing, croaking and covered with flies and mud. The mysterious Beloved seems to cast a hypnotic spell on everyone in the house. It's here that the film takes on an even darker, more stifling tone as Paul D begins to suspect that Beloved is the physical manifestation of the ghost of Sethe's 2-year-old child.

Demme, in his first film since 1993's ``Philadelphia,'' weaves in flashbacks filmed in saturated color that gradually (and quite painfully) explain Sethe's harrowing past. He has stamped ``Beloved'' with visceral flourishes, appropriate for the magic realism that so heavily infuses Morrison's novel. The film brims with insect sounds, images of nature and glimpses of the supernatural resulting in a work that is as mysterious as its title character. The disparate elements don't always coalesce, though, and ``Beloved'' often feels like it's a movie in search of a genre.

Fans of Morrison will likely be pleased by Demme's slavish attention to the novel. But he would have done well to pare some scenes from the screenplay (adapted, at various times, by Akosua Busia, Richard LaGravenese and Adam Brooks) because, at nearly three hours, ``Beloved'' eventually slackens. And though the ending honestly befits what preceded it, many viewers, having invested so much time, will be disappointed by its low-key tone.

Winfrey, from moment one, disappears into her role and allays any concerns that her image would overwhelm her performance. It's nice to see Glover again in a dramatic role and his mere presence gives the story a light of hope and compassion. Newton is inspired as the bedeviled Beloved; you won't see a braver performance all year. And Elise convincingly shows Denver's slow transformation, which serves as an example of the slow, painstaking process that generations of African-Americans had to endure to erase the shackles of slavery.

Beah Richards also shines as Sethe's mother-in-law, who preaches that salvation is seeing yourself as you are and loving that picture. Such a message was radical and nearly impossible to accept for former slaves trying to experience a new life in the Reconstruction era. Sadly, more than a century later, it hasn't become that much easier for many people in America. That is one reason the story of ``Beloved'' resonates so powerfully with so many today.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Beloved'' (R; violent images, sexuality, nudity).

The stars: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Beah Richards.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Jonathan Demme. Screenplay by Akosua Busia, Richard LaGravenese and Adam Brooks, based on the novel by Toni Morrison.

Running time: Two hours, 55 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars.