`DELTA' PREACHES WITH A PURPOSE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Sometimes, good for you can be kind of good.

That's the case with ``Down in the Delta,'' which is basically the kind of finger-wagging problem film that's meant to instruct more than entertain.

It's a serious family drama that contrasts all the bad things about living in a Chicago housing project (absent fathers, uneducated and substance-abusing mothers, violence) with all the swell things about living in the Mississippi countryside (nice house, clean living, 45 different ways to make chicken).

It emphasizes the importance of family bonds as the only sure cure for social pathology. As you might imagine, it's more than a little preachy.

But it's also extremely well-acted. And many of the scenes, though written by a white Southern guy named Myron Goble, have the intelligent, authentic ring of examined African-American life, thanks in large part, no doubt, to poet Maya Angelou, who makes her feature-directing debut here.

With issues ranging from the legacy of slavery to modern-day corporate downsizing, from autism to Alzheimer's, from Habitat for Humanity homebuilding to up-with-all-of-us entrepreneurialism, the film risked being about everything but real people. But thanks, mainly, to carefully layered lead performances by Alfre Woodard and Al Freeman Jr., ``Delta'' rarely plays quite as didactically as it really is.

Woodard is Loretta, a discouraged Chicago woman who's been drowning herself in drink at least since her husband left after the birth of their second child. That little girl is autistic, and while Loretta spends her time trying to party her pain away, her bright preteen son Thomas (Mpho Koaho) and responsible, widowed mother Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice) do their best to raise the troublesome tot.

Finally fed up with her daughter's attitude, Rosa Lynn convinces her reluctant brother-in-law Earl (Freeman) to take Loretta and the grandkids in for the summer. He's got a fine house in the Mississippi Delta - indeed, it once belonged to the family that owned his ancestors - and runs a profitable chicken restaurant in the neighboring small town.

It's a great place for Loretta to dry out into the good person we all know she can be. There's abundant fresh air and green fields wherein Thomas can blossom to his full potential. There's even Earl's Alzheimer's-stricken wife Annie (the late Esther Rolle) for the imbalanced little girl to bond with.

Could there be any doubt that this situation will enrich everybody? Even Earl's son Will (Wesley Snipes), a high-powered Atlanta attorney who makes a point of keeping his distance from the old homestead, is irresistibly drawn back by all the blazing family warmth. Increasing flashbacks to the mid-1800s put the whole situation into perspective, with the help of a heavily symbolic candelabrum.

Angelou doesn't really direct a film here (it was originally planned as a cable TV project). Rather, she tells a story about people with cameras. The framing foregrounds the performances, and the thing moves with a languid rhythm tuned to making sure everybody has all the time necessary to say what they've got to get out. It's steady but not stolid; both Woodard and Freeman manage to convey a wide range of intriguing resentments even as their characters move inexorably toward doing every right thing.

There are many worse ways to deliver lectures.

The facts

The film: ``Down in the Delta'' (PG-13; language, violence, substance abuse, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr., Wesley Snipes, Esther Rolle, Mary Alice, Loretta Devine, Mpho Koaho.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Maya Angelou. Written by Myron Goble. Produced by Rick Rosenberg, Bob Christiansen, Victor McGauley, Wesley Snipes and Reuben Cannon

Running time: One hour, 50 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: three stars

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Photo

PHOTO Loretta Devine, left, and Alfre Woodard star in ``Down in the Delta,'' directed by poet Maya Angelou.