`KAHUNA' TAILORED TO SPACEY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Based on a play and made by a theatrical director, ``The Big Kahuna'' is, unsurprisingly, stagy. Limited to essentially one set - and a nondescript hotel suite at that - and carpeted with wall-to-wall, very written-sounding dialogue, the movie is, on the most obvious level, a textbook example of how not to turn a play into a movie.

Despite those and other evident flaws (playwright/adapter Roger Rueff is forever doomed to be unfavorably compared to ``Glengarry Glen Ross''-era David Mamet), the story grows remarkably involving. The issues it brings up - loyalty, faith, just what the heck people choose to weave their lives around - are deep dish. Even if ``Kahuna'' never gets more than halfway into the bowl, it's still pretty intelligent and compelling stuff.

Three salesmen from an industrial lubricant company meet in a hospitality suite at a Wichita, Kan., hotel. There's a convention going on, and their goal is to snag the business of the title desirable client who, unfortunately, none of them knows by sight.

The principals represent the three stages of that peculiarly American brand of job-related slow death. Danny DeVito's Phil is starting to feel his age and questioning the meaning of it all in the wake of a devastating divorce. His longtime cohort, Kevin Spacey's Larry, is a fast and vulgar operator at the peak of his persuasive prowess - or maybe just past it, a fear he ruthlessly wishes not to confront.

The third participant is Bob (Peter Facinelli), a religious young man on his first big assignment. Larry, naturally, delights in tweaking Bob's piety, which the older pro considers naive. But when, in the aftermath of the drunken party the salesmen host, it's Bob who hooks the target CEO with talk of Jesus, much wee-hour reassessment of personal priorities must be made.

Spacey co-produced ``Kahuna'' and got a longtime theater buddy, John Swanbeck, to direct it. It's easy to see why the actor was attracted to the piece: Larry is the quintessential, overbearing egomaniac that Spacey has specialized in from ``Glengarry'' to ``L.A. Confidential,'' ``Swimming With Sharks,'' ``Hurlyburly,'' ``Consenting Adults'' and untold others. This project offers him the opportunity to do what he does well without too much on-screen competition. But as well as he understands characters like Larry, illuminating new facets of that well-examined type proves a difficult order to fill here.

DeVito and Facinelli are fine in their roles, but the nature of this beast dictates that they remain subordinate to Spacey's personality pyrotechnics. Swanbeck moves everyone about the limited film frame adequately, but he still has much to learn about the difficult task of cinematically composing images in restricted space.

Perhaps the most interesting idea on ``Kahuna's'' agenda is whether the true American religion is salesmanship - and, if so, how do we prevent our deepest beliefs from becoming mere pitches we throw at those we want something from? It's good that ``The Big Kahuna'' at least brings it up, but it's disappointing that the issue isn't examined nearly as seriously as it deserves to be.

But that would probably have offended some potential customers. And, Lord knows, we can't do that.

THE FACTS

--The film: ``The Big Kahuna'' (R; language).

--The stars: Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Peter Facinelli.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by John Swanbeck. Written by Roger Rueff, based on his play ``Hospitality Suite.'' Produced by Spacey, Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens, Joanne Horowitz and Bernie Morris. Released by Lions Gate Films.

--Running time: One hour, 30 minutes.

--Playing: Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Century 14, Century City; Beverly Center Cineplex, West Hollywood; Criterion 6, Santa Monica.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: Veteran salesman Kevin Spacey, right, tries to needle Christian sales rep Peter Facinelli in ``The Big Kahuna.''

Box: THE FACTS (see text)