`KISS THE GIRLS' FALLS FAR SHORT OF LIVING UP TO ITS PLOT POTENTIAL.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

James Patterson's ``Kiss the Girls'' is one of the sickest, skin-crawlingly sexist and ferociously well-written novels ever unleashed in the dubious serial-killer/thriller field.

The film adaptation is one of the more discreet, conscientiously empowering and drably written movies ever released in the lucrative serial-killer/thriller field.

Evidently, it requires a real fascination with perversity to make a resonant movie - a ``Seven'' or a ``Silence of the Lambs'' - out of this kind of material. Director Gary Fleder doesn't appear to be very intrigued by the stuff, which is undoubtedly good for him. But it's kind of a drag for us.

Despite eschewing the shocking, ``Kiss the Girls'' is nonetheless efficient. It moves crisply and quickly through the novel's convoluted plot points, but as discoveries unfold (and there's a big, surprising one halfway through) they're not very, um, captivating. Since we're not privy to the lower depths of the psycho's obsession nor, inevitably, to the full, mirrored fears and hatred of our hero and heroine, any thrills the film manages to manufacture feel pretty mechanical.

The passion here lies in Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd's lead performances. He plays the brilliant and empathetic D.C. forensic psychologist Alex Cross. She plays kick-boxing North Carolina Dr. Kate Mctiernan.

Cross, who has written a best-selling book about serial sex criminals, comes down to Durham, N.C., when his favorite, violin prodigy niece Naomi (Gina Ravera) is snatched off the Duke University campus. Seems she's one of a bunch of remarkable, attractive young women missing in those parts, but has not yet turned up dead, tied to a tree in the deep woods and critter-ravaged, like some of them.

The perpetrator of these outrages calls himself Casanova, and he keeps his special harem imprisoned in some mysteriously disappearing rural compound. Of course, he only wants them to love him. And of course Dr. Mctiernan, his feisty latest trophy, is the only one to escape his clutches alive. But even though she's brave and self-possessed enough to lend her all to Cross' investigation, even she can't retrace the path to Casanova's dungeon.

Freeman and Judd are well-matched. Both exude intelligence, diligence and moral commitment. Yet anyone who felt the world-weary devastation Freeman so carefully concocted for ``Seven'' may find his Cross a bit too taciturn and businesslike, considering his personal stake in the case. And anyone who read Patterson's book knows that a whole human dimension of doubt and emotional devastation has simply been written out of Mctiernan, leaving Judd with a limited behavioral palette of vengeance and concern for others to work with.

There is something to be said for a movie like this that keeps the display of violation to an absolute minimum and very rapidly turns its main female victim into a reasoning avenger. But ``Kiss the Girls'' would be easier to applaud if its good intentions were mixed with a visceral sense of something too horrible to contemplate, something we could invest more in seeing stopped.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Kiss the Girls'' (R; violence, language, drug use).

The stars: Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Alex McArthur, Tony Goldwyn.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Gary Fleder. Written by David Klass, based on James Patterson's novel. Produced by David Brown and Joe Wizan. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 57 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating:Two and One Half Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Detectives Nick Ruskin (Cary Elwes, left) and Davey Sikes (Alex McArthur) offer nominal cooperation to forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) in ``Kiss the Girls.''