'RISING' NEVER REACHES LEVEL OF IMPORTANCE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

OBSTINATELY old-fashioned, ``The Rising Place'' is set in a 1940s Mississippi Delta where both the wisteria and racism are in full bloom. This well-intentioned picture aims to put across a sweet message: Ask your elders to tell their stories ... before it's too late.

Given all the stereotypes that writer-director Tom Rice mines here, you'd do well to skip the slow-paced film and simply get a head start on the family bonding.

Told in flashback, the movie focuses on the headstrong young Emily (Laurel Holloman), who, as an opening voice-over breathlessly announces, has reached a moment of truth in her life - a ``rising place'' - where ``the past becomes a blur and priorities reveal themselves, lending clarity to one's future.'' In other words, it's time for Emily to grow up.

No problem there since Emily is pregnant by her fly-by-night pilot boyfriend, who departs for World War II after their lone roll in the tall summer grass. That leaves Emily to face the wrath of her family and worry why her man never writes. To pass the time, she roams the dirt roads with her best friends, an educated young black woman named Wilma (Elise Neal), and numskull draft dodger Will (Mark Webber).

All that roaming doesn't make for much drama since it's rarely hard to guess what's going to happen next in a place full of small-minded bigots who frown at Emily's unplanned pregnancy and her interracial friendship with Wilma. Rice obviously has a big heart for civil rights and sweet potato pie. It's too bad he couldn't translate these passions into something other than scenes from the Bad Old South that you've seen before in countless television movies.

Another problem is that Rice never clearly defines his characters or gives us a reason to care about them. Emily's story is supposed to be inspiring, but the dopey character comes across as passive, driven by events instead of shaping her own destiny. When the most remarkable thing about your heroine is her ravishing red hair, it's time to rethink the movie - or at least let us know what shampoo she uses.

THE RISING PLACE - Two stars

(PG-13: violence)

Starring: Laurel Holloman, Elise Neal, Mark Webber.

Director: Tom Rice.

Running time :1 hr. 33 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Music Hall, Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: Bland period piece about an unremarkable woman in the stereotypical South.

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An interracial friendship between Laurel Hollomon, left, and Elise Neal goes against the social conventions of a bigoted 1940s Deep South in ``The Rising Place.''