`FOXFIRE' MISSTEPS THROUGH ROMANTICISM, SOCIAL ISSUES.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic

A provocative, enigmatic female drifter (Angelina Jolie) shakes up the lives of four young women in a Portland, Ore., high school in an uneven adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' novel ``Foxfire.''

Like a number of other recent movies, including ``The Craft'' and ``Girls Town,'' ``Foxfire'' examines the rituals of bonding and empowerment among high school females. Set in rainy Portland, the movie attempts a rarefied and often clumsy balance between romanticism and social realism. Gritty issues such as sexual harassment and drug addiction are examined; fantasy solutions are proposed.

Legs (Jolie), a leather-clad hitchhiker with a low tolerance for female oppression, blows into town and acts as a catalyst for change in the lives of 17-year-olds Maddy (Hedy Burress), Rita (Jenny Lewis), Goldie (Jenny Shimuzu), and Violet (Sarah Rosenberg).

Presented very much like a fantasy figure - one who enters and exits through windows rather than doors - Legs is a sensual-looking, lesbian-leaning provocateur who quickly rallies the girls to stand up to their bullying biology teacher (John Diehl), a creep who sexually molests them during detention periods.

Violence is their recourse, and after they get suspended for beating up the teacher, who doubles as the football coach, the girls spend their days in an abandoned house on the river, where they've encouraged Legs to take up residence.

Trouble soon finds them in the form of vengeful football jocks who think the girls should pay the price for the coach's suspension on the charges they raised.

Occasionally, the movie hits its target by tapping into the drives and fantasies that some young women undoubtedly harbor. It shows the femmes learning that they can establish strong identities with or without male company; meanwhile, it continually flirts with lesbian longing without ever quite crossing the line.

In one of the more effective scenes, the females peel off their tops to receive tattoos of a fire symbol from the ever-flirtatious Legs while sensual Mazzy Star music plays in the background. With the girls cuddling together half nude in the candlelight, the movie pretty much says what it has to say.

Much of the rest is pure melodrama that often involves shrill confrontations with two-dimensional males.

Still, the movie will have undeniable cult appeal, mostly for the sensual value of the performances by the gorgeous Jolie, who looks like an underground comic book artist's dream, and close-cropped Calvin Klein model Jenny Shimuzu, who, as the troubled, heroin-using Goldie, establishes an immediate, quicksilver screen appeal that one hopes to see again in a larger role.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Foxfire'' (R; language, sexual issues, drug use).

The stars: Angelina Jolie, Hedy Burress, Jenny Shimizu, Jenny Lewis, Sarah Rosenberg.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Annette Haywood-Carter, produced by Jeffrey Lurie, John Bard Manulis and John P. Marsh. Screenplay by Elizabeth White, based on the book by Joyce Carol Oates. Released by Rysher Entertainment.

Running time: One hour, 42 minutes.

Playing: Selected theaters.

Our rating: Two Stars.