`NIGHT' SCRIPT MISSES THE POINT.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

There's a fascinating ethical dilemma in ``Night Falls on Manhattan.''

Too bad it's not the one the movie is about.

Talky, tedious and remarkably thin in both the plotting and moral-depth departments, Sidney Lumet's umpteenth film about corrupt cops and cagey lawyers boasts a few strong performances and some potentially intriguing ideas. It's a half-step back to form for the veteran New York filmmaker, who's recently stumbled into uncharacteristic ludicrousness with ``Guilty as Sin'' and ``A Stranger Among Us.''

But anyone expecting a return to the absorbing inquiry of ``Serpico,'' ``The Verdict'' or ``Q & A'' will be gravely disappointed. The conflict at the heart of ``Manhattan'' manages to be murky and over-obvious at the same time. It's finally revealed to be relatively trivial and easily resolved, which doesn't make you any happier about giving Lumet, who also wrote the script based on Robert Daley's novel ``Tainted Evidence,'' the benefit of the doubt through a lot of unconvincing exposition.

Andy Garcia plays Sean Casey, a second-generation New York cop turned naive new assistant district attorney. Sean's beloved pop Liam (Ian Holm, a lot steadier here than he is in ``The Fifth Element'') is almost killed by Harlem's Most Ruthless Drug Dealer; three other officers participating in the botched raid aren't even that lucky.

HMRDD Jordan Washington (Shiek Mahmud-Bey) gets away, then makes a big deal out of turning himself in. Normally ballistic District Attorney Morgenstern (Ron Leibman, enjoyably playing it so the folks on Pluto can hear) goes thermonuclear and decides to hand the high-profile case to the untested son of the wounded cop.

Amazingly, Sean outmaneuvers Washington's superslick defender Sam Vigoda, played by Richard Dreyfuss with William Kunstler flair and Alan Dershowitz hair. But not before the liberal lawyer suggests some guys from Liam's precinct might have been on his client's payroll. Next thing you know, Sean is elected D.A. and has a meaningful affair with one of Vigoda's partners (Lena Olin, in a role so sketchy her character's name might just as well be the Girlfriend).

At this point, Sean even remarks about how things just keep getting better and better, so you know that's the end of that. That dirty-cop idea of Vigoda's comes back to bite people the dedicated D.A. has known and loved his whole life. Torn, turgidly, between ideals and loyalty, Garcia expresses Sean's confused anguish by, for the most part, mixing up different, distinct East Coast dialects in the same sentence.

Both Caseys are forced to make choices, but no matter how loud they wrestle with them, they're not interesting enough to care much about. What is interesting is Vigoda's hidden agenda. We have here a grandstanding legal hotshot who is quite blithely willing to risk violating his professional code and ruining his reputation for a snarky form of personal revenge.

He tells Sean about it. The rationalization involved is amusing, passionate, the stuff of a truly convoluted conscience. You want more. You want to see if Vigoda can talk his way out of the trouble he'd inevitably get into. And he is promptly written out of the scenario, leaving us in the slack grip of a far less-compelling plot line.

From then on, ``Night Falls on Manhattan'' with a thud.

THE FACTS

The film:``Night Falls on Manhattan'' (R; language, violence, racism).

The stars: Andy Garcia, Ian Holm, James Gandolfini, Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin, Ron Leibman.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the novel ``Tainted Evidence'' by Robert Daley. Produced by Thom Mount and Josh Kramer. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 54 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two Stars.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Prosecutor Sean Casey (Andy Garcia), left, and defense attorney Sam Vigoda (Richard Dreyfuss) confer with Judge Impelliteri (Dominic Chiainese) in ``Night Falls on Manhattan.''

(2) In ``Night Falls,'' Lena Olin is an opposing attorney who has an affair with Garcia's character.