'WORLD': JUST THINK OF IT AS 'MODEM HEAT'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

``The Center of the World'' is doubly damaged by time.

This sort of ``Last Tango in Nerdville,'' about a young computer-biz millionaire who hires an equally youthful stripper to spend three days with him in Vegas, loses urgency whenever talk of scoring $20 million from an IPO comes up (it may have been shot quick on digital video, but not fast enough to get to theaters ahead of the dotcom meltdown).

Despite the snickering those scenes can't help but inspire, it doesn't take too much effort to appreciate the adults-only movie as an artifact of a suddenly bygone era. Making that task more difficult, however, is the fact that the two main characters are indeed quite young, and by dint of their respective professions emotionally more stunted than most adults their age.

Director and co-writer Wayne Wang (``The Joy Luck Club,'' ``Smoke'') has made that a key element of both the film's story and how the characters are presented. While there's certainly an artistically honest impulse behind that, in practice it makes the film's lustful but romantically clueless couple seem overly callow and lacking in background dimension.

You don't, in other words, care much what happens to them, despite the best and often brave efforts of stars Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker ... and of their body doubles.

``It's all an act; you know that, right?'' asks Florence - a skinny, befreckled grrl-band drummer who makes her living lap-dancing at the Pandora's Box club - of Richard, who's decided he needs a break from the consuming cyber-design thing he's done since college. He assures her he does; that the sexy thing he's encountered at the club is not the real Florence, and that neither is a prostitute nor potential girlfriend material.

But once ensconced in their tastefully appointed (well, except for the big, brightly colored nudes on the walls), separate-but-connected hotel rooms, it becomes immediately clear that Richard doesn't get it at all. Florence has laid down a number of rules for the Vegas venture: no lip kissing, no discussions of feelings, fantasy time from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. only, etc.

Yet the accommodating Richard passively but relentlessly tries to turn the whole thing into a significant, ``Bridget Jones''-style mini-break, taking Florence on shopping sprees, roller-coaster rides and other datelike excursions. He even tags along charmingly on a visit to an old friend of hers (Carla Gugino, not behaving like the perfect ``Spy Kids'' mom at all).

This kind of activity, combined with the discovery of a certain carnal compatibility, threatens to tear Florence's rule sheet to shreds. But her selmage, such as it is, depends on maintaining limits. And while confrontation and frustration inevitably drive Richard to expose the dark side we (and she) always knew he had, well, he may be relationship-ignorant, but he's clearly a fast learner.

And he is rich. Also generous. Kinda cute, too. And ... well, that's about all. The recent death of Richard's father is mentioned, but how it affected him, we're not shown. In fact, Richard's general, cocooned-off view of reality is simply presumed from stereotypical ideas of how computer geeks and Maxim-informed young males of our time are supposed to think.

Florence is (pardon the pun) fleshed out slightly better. But she's still essentially a cliched sex worker, whose confidence in her erotic power masks vulnerability and devastating cynicism. And we learn even less about her background than we do about Richard's.

The film's selling point is its soft-core sensuality, which is neither skimped on nor permitted to overwhelm the emotional drama. Theoretically, that should keep the customers satisfied, but is it really, well, hot? Depends on you, of course. The most objective thing that can be said is that it's not ludicrous like ``Showgirls'' was, and that can only be considered fortunate.

But Wang is genuinely after a ``Last Tango in Paris'' psychosexual profundity here, and he's gotten his computer cables crossed in the effort. Bertolucci's masterpiece told us everything we needed to know about a couple who tried to divorce intimacy from passion - and why they would attempt to. ``The Center of the World'' is about two arrested adolescents who, quite frankly, just don't know what they're doing.

``THE CENTER OF THE WORLD''

(Not rated, no one under 17 admitted: nudity, sex, language, drug use)

The stars: Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Parker, Carla Gugino.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Wayne Wang. Written by Wang, Miranda July, Paul Auster and Siri Hustvedt. Produced by Wang and Peter Newman. Released by Artisan Entertainment.

Running time: One hour, 26 minutes.

Playing: Sunset 5, Hollywood; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; NuWilshire, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Two stars

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Peter Sarsgaard and Molly Parker try to avoid emotional entanglements during a raucous affair in ``The Center of the World.''