`BOYS DON'T CRY' A SORDID TALE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

The story of Brandon Teena, a young Nebraska woman who was convinced - and convinced many people around her - that she was really a boy, has been gone over in numerous articles and a television documentary. There has been something missing from most of this coverage, something ``Boys Don't Cry'' seeks to supply.

The movie comes within spitting distance of illuminating the whole, sordidly fascinating story, or at least shrewdly speculating on it. In the process, director and co-writer Kimberly Peirce proves herself an astonishingly gifted filmmaker, already in full command of performance and picture on her first feature.

But even played by an actress as emotionally free and chameleonlike as Hilary Swank, Brandon remains a bit of an enigma. Inevitable, perhaps; how can we ever explain a person whose need to deceive was so intimately and inexplicably intertwined with her need for love? Still, something's lacking in the portrayal of Brandon - call it a conscience - that most reports have overlooked due to her status as a hate crime casualty.

But that's something that nags you after the film is over. While it's playing, the movie is all but mesmerizing, so thoroughly does it detail dead-end heartland life and dysfunction.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Brandon Teena was really Teena Brandon, a congenital liar with a whopping case of gender confusion. She'd cut her hair, bind her breasts, stick a sock in her jeans and pick up girls in Lincoln bars. This generally resulted in getting chased by angry brothers, and the cops were no kinder when they'd catch her vandalizing cars or forging checks.

One night, she escaped to tiny Falls City, about 75 miles down a flat, empty highway. There, in her Brandon persona, she quickly made friends with two young ex-cons, John Lotter (Peter Sarsgaard) and Thomas Nissen (Brendan Sexton III), and somehow convinced half the teen-age girls in town that she was their dream boyfriend.

Considering how crude and violent the indigenous male population was, the delusions made a kind of sense. The film limits Brandon's romantic escapades pretty much to one girl, Lana Tisdell, who is beautifully played here by Chloe Sevigny with all the headstrong longing and guarded vulnerability a teen-ager in love can possess. The real-life Tisdale - and you may want to skip the rest of this paragraph if you're unfamiliar with the case and wish to be surprised - is reportedly considering legal action against the filmmakers, who place her at the scene of Teena's murder, among other acts of artistic license.

While the Brandon-Lana relationship forms the film's heart, there is abundant life in every corner of ``Boys Don't Cry.'' Peirce and her actors capture the wayward existence of smalltown outcasts with uncanny perception. With the help of cinematographer Jim Denault, she also displays an uncanny instinct for when and how to place a camera in the midst of volatile groups, where the dynamic can turn violent in the blink of an eye and no one - especially if they're pretending to be something they're not - can relax.

As good as everyone is here, Swank inevitably steals the show. A former ``Beverly Hills 90210'' regular, of all things, she not only makes us forget that Brandon is a woman, Swank turns us into co-conspirators in her gleeful, dangerous masquerade. We feel what Brandon feels, from paranoia to exhilaration to devastation and terror.

But the one thing we don't feel is a real sense of guilt. Sure, Brandon apologizes when she's confronted with the truth and threatened with grievous harm, but it hardly seems heartfelt. Brandon was clearly no sociopath - she was too emotionally needy - and as long as Peirce and company were changing facts and inventing some behavior, they should have addressed the most obvious conflict in Brandon's confused life.

Victim of narrowmindedness, homophobia and identity crisis she inarguably was. But just because that will be enough to jerk sympathy from all enlightened, right-thinking people, it's still a shame to rob Brandon Teena of a soul.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Boys Don't Cry'' (R; sex, nudity, violence, language, drug use, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Jeannetta Arnette.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Kimberly Peirce. Written by Peirce and Andy Bienen. Produced by Jeffrey Sharp, John Hart, Eva Kolodner and Christine Vachon. Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 54 minutes.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood; NuWilshire, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Three and one half stars.