A HIT IS MADE, A STAR IS BORN IN `TIME TO KILL'.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Critic

Elevated by a trio of great performances, including the dazzling arrival into movie stardom of striking Texas-born actor Matthew McConaughey, ``A Time to Kill'' blends potent entertainment and gripping emotional issues in one of this summer's must-see movies.

John Grisham's first novel, to which the movie is quite faithful, has its share of contrivance and melodrama, and some of the movie's dramatic excesses come across as pure Hollywood.

Still, if conflict and emotion are the basis of gripping drama, this courtroom saga wins its case.

Set in a fictional Mississippi small town, ``A Time to Kill'' is a tale of racial tensions stirred up by a volatile murder case.

Two drunken rednecks abduct a 10-year-old African-American girl on a country road, brutally rape her and nearly kill her.

Captured, the bad ol' white trash boys show no remorse and continue to express bile for their African-American neighbors, who they clearly consider less than human.

Enraged, the girl's father, a blue-collar laborer named Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) enters the courthouse with a shotgun and blasts the two handcuffed defendants to their rightful end.

But what's the town to do? The law doesn't allow for vigilante justice. The racial element of the case inflames tensions considerably. Carl Lee is put on trial for the double murder. He turns to an acquaintance, a struggling young white lawyer named Jake Brigance (McConaughey) for legal assistance, then reveals that he can't afford to pay.

Brigance takes the case, to the displeasure of his well-tended new wife (Ashley Judd). He alienates the town's white power structure, and even the area's African-American power structure, by standing up to some NAACP opportunists who try to take over.

A tattered Ku Klux Klan regiment, led by the brother (Kiefer Sutherland) of one of the shotgunned men, comes out from under its rock and starts burning crosses and planting bombs.

With no one to help him except a brash, bright and persistent Boston law student (Sandra Bullock), who he inexplicably keeps rebuffing, Brigance appears to be digging his own grave.

But his ragtag team, including his alcoholic genius law professor (Donald Sutherland), eventually takes shape, and despite all manner of destruction being inflicted on his life and property, Jake makes a real go of it, culminating in his gut-wrenching summation before the jury.

Director Joel Schumacher (``The Client,'' ``Batman Forever'') gets things off to a high-adrenaline start and tells the story in quick, effective strokes before bogging down somewhat in the film's longish second half.

The production, however, is visually gorgeous and soaked in atmospherics, and credit must be given for the standout casting. Jackson (``Pulp Fiction'') brings real comprehension and emotional truth to the crucial role of Carl Lee, delivering his blunt and deliberate assessments of racial relations with haunting effectiveness.

Then there's the golden-haired McConaughey, a Paul Newman look-alike who brings intelligence and steely decency, fortitude and emotional availability to the role of Brigance.

There's real chemistry between him and Bullock, who injects plenty of interest when she blows into town in her black Porsche convertible as the foxy, quick-witted and tenacious Northern liberal law student who saves the day more than once.

After Klan threats lead Jake's wife to clear out of town, the two of them toy with their attraction for each other and alcohol while struggling to keep their focus on the business at hand.

While there are plenty of pockets of truth in this outing, its effect is somewhat undermined by its excesses. The cartoonish presentation of the rednecks and Klansmen - as well as the hand-to-hand combat in the town square between whites, African-Americans, Klansmen and the National Guard - are tired elements so clearly calculated to push our emotional buttons that they ring false rather than deepening the drama.

It's also somewhat troubling to see high-impact moviemaking that pounds away at the progress some communities may have made toward healing racial divisions by endlessly reopening old wounds in what will inevitably - at least in this case - result in commercial gain.

Still, this is the novel John Grisham wrote seven years ago, and Hollywood doesn't argue with success. Every movie made from a book penned by the former Mississippi lawyer has grossed more than $100 million, including Schumacher's ``The Client.'' Grisham, who was one of the movie's producers, has called it an ``extremely faithful'' adaptation of the novel he holds most dear. In his opinion, among the movies made from his books, it is ``the best yet.''

THE FACTS

The film: ``A Time To Kill'' (R; violence, implied rape).

The stars: Sandra Bullock, Samuel L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Spacey, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Brenda Fricker.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Joel Schumacher. Written by Akiva Goldsman based on the book by John Grisham. Produced by Arnon Milchan, Michael Nathanson, Hunt Lowry and John Grisham.

Running time: Two hours, 25 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: While defending an African-American double homicidedefendant in ``A Time to Kill,'' Sandra Bullock and Matthew McConaughey flirt with disaster, alcoholism and each other.