'DOT THE I' SHOWCASES D'ARCY, BERNAL TO A T.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

THE TIME IS coming in which a hotly in-demand actor like Gael Garcia Bernal won't make a movie that allows him to get so thoroughly smoked by a lesser co-star, and a movie like the nifty, caper-ish love triangle ``Dot the I'' won't make it past the video shelves.

Come to think of it, that time already may have arrived. ``Dot the I,'' the feature writing-directing debut of novelist Matthew Parkhill, screened at Sundance in 2003 and won an audience award at the Deauville Film festival that same year. Using the Bernal chronicle as a guideline, ``Dot the I'' was made after the Guadalajara-born actor made ``Y Tu Mama Tambien'' and ``The Crime of Father Amaro'' but before ``The Motorcycle Diaries'' and ``Bad Education.'' ``Dot the I'' is, if not Bernal's very first English language role, certainly an early entry. And since he's not exactly playing an orator, he does fine.

Instead he takes on a role as a down-on-his-luck actor embroiled - emphasis on ``broiled'' - in the pursuit of a Spanish flamenco dancer (Natalia Verbeke) who is engaged to a rich British do-nothing. Bernal does not actually drive the plot as you expect he might. That a guy with those looks and that kind of star wattage is the pigeon and not the shark is kind of a deft twist. One of several that Parkhill lobs our way.

Carrying a handheld video camera, Kit (Bernal) wanders into the ``hen party'' (read bachelorette party) where Carmen (Verbeke) is celebrating the last days of freedom before she weds the very rich Barnaby Caspian (James D'Arcy). Seems Carmen has had something of a tempestuous past: one that includes psycho ex-boyfriends and being fired from 35 jobs in a single year due to temper flare-ups. She loves Barnaby, but does he sizzle her Spanish blood? (Has any Carmen in the history of creation ever wed someone named Barnaby?)

One look at Bernal in that hooded sweat shirt and grungy apartment should give you your answer. The two share a first and only kiss (``hen party'' tradition). A flustered Carmen runs. Kit pursues. And Carmen resists until she doesn't. There's something vaguely stalker-esque about the manner in which characters are tracked in video footage, as though Carmen and all those in her personal orbit are somehow part of something a bit more sinister. Which, of course, they are.

``Dot the I'' comes at you with a slick buoyancy, the work of a director who has a point to make and isn't terrifically subtle about his delivery. That said, his trio of leads are engaging and believable. And the revelation of the film is not Bernal but D'Arcy, who loafs from a callow throwaway part into something a heck of a lot more interesting.

Lesser-known actors don't figure to be able to upstage the Gael Garcia Bernals of this world on a regular basis. When it happens, the results can be well worth watching.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

DOT THE I - Three stars

(R: sex, language)

Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Natalia Verbeke, James D'Arcy.

Director: Matthew Parkhill.

Running time: 1 hr. 31 min.

Playing: Landmark's Nuart.

In a nutshell: Sexy, twisty and with a knockout performance from the character you don't expect to give it.