A NEW LEE CROSSES MOVIEMAKING THRESHOLD WITH `THE BEST MAN'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

A mature romantic comedy about people behaving immaturely, ``The Best Man'' boasts an irrepressible sense of fun and an even sharper instinct for when to get serious.

The ensemble piece marks the feature directing debut of Malcolm D. Lee, who also wrote its script. He's the cousin of Spike Lee, who produced the picture and upon whose films Malcolm has often worked. Their styles could hardly be more different: Malcolm's is relaxed and reflective, as opposed to his cousin's agitated and incendiary approach. But they both go in for intelligent characterizations, and a strong narrative desires to get down to the truth of things.

``The Best Man'' sports elements of both ``The Big Chill'' and the recent ``The Wood,'' but only superficially in that it's an upscale college reunion story built around an African-American wedding. Similarities end there, as a number of intriguing people find their relationships with one another gradually - then more rapidly - spiraling out of control.

The central character is Taye Diggs' Harper Stewart, a Chicago writer whose first novel - which is a thinly veiled recollection of university days - is about to be published. He's in New York for the marriage of best friend Lance (``Boyz N the Hood's'' Morris Chestnut), now a professional football star, and Monica Calhoun's Mia, who used to work with him on the school newspaper.

Harper's not-quite-committed-to girlfriend, Robin (Sanaa Lathan), will arrive in two days for the wedding. Complications have been pre-initiated by Jordan Armstrong (Nia Long of ``Hood,'' ``Soul Food'' and ``Love Jones'' acclaim), Harper's old study partner and almost flame. Now a driven talk-show producer, she has obtained an advance copy of the novel, which has somehow gotten passed around to two other college chums: Murch (Harold Perrineau), who doesn't know what to do with either his law degree or his manipulative, high-maintenance girlfriend Shelby (Melissa DeSousa), and Quentin (Terrence Howard), a talented, trash-talking ladies' man who can't seem to settle on any career path at all.

Apparently, the book contains revelations - fictionalized but revelatory nonetheless about true feelings and secret betrayals from back in the day. The last thing Harper wanted was for Lance to read any of it before the ceremony. One guess how Lance chooses to take his mind off prewedding jitters. It's the trick with these kinds of stories to orchestrate people's desires and misunderstandings into ever higher-stakes confrontations and ultimatums, and Lee whips up some doozies on that front.

But ``The Best Man'' is also very much about confronting painful truths, both about one's intimates and oneself. Rarely has such a wide range of individuals genuinely grown as much in one movie as the folks in this one do - or fire off as much sassy, uproarious dialogue in the process.

Lee takes his time building up characters and their relationships, which is admirable but a tricky task he's not quite mastered yet. A few scenes early on go nowhere and do very little in the way of developing the story. And while the Harper-Jordan-Lance trajectories are rich in complex connections and funny incidents, other characters, though often vivid, are sometimes limited to caricature.

Overall though, Lee has made a very impressive first feature and revitalized a tired story structure with style and personality distinctively his own.

THE FACTS

The film: ``The Best Man'' (R; language, sex, violence).

The stars: Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun, Melissa DeSousa.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Malcolm Lee. Produced by Spike Lee, Sam Kitt and Bill Carraro. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, five minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars.

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Photo

Photo: Pro football player Lance (Morris Chesnut, left) is toasted at his bachelor party by best man Harper (Taye Diggs) in ``The Best Man.''