CAN WORD OF MOUTH HELP THESE TWO REACH SUCCESS?

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

'READ MY LIPS'' may use sound - more precisely, the lack thereof - as a plot gimmick. But this intriguing French workplace thriller is actually much more concerned with looks.

One of the rare Gallic films that's ungallant enough to make an issue of its leading lady's (Emmanuelle Devos) physical shortcomings, Jacques Audiard's sly, larcenous love story also offers up the inexplicably heartthrobby Vincent Cassel at his repellently scuzziest. I know the French can have different tastes than you or I, but it is truly a tribute to these performers' impassioned talents that they get us so thoroughly on their characters' side. Forget about the lack of surface glamour; this pair is Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni on the outside compared to the ugliness within.

Devos plays Carla Behm, a hearing-impaired secretary at a high-powered property development firm. The mostly male upper echelons overwork her when they're not ignoring her or making snide comments about her weak-chinned, drab-haired appearance. Despite going beyond the call of duty (without credit) to help others land deals, she always seems to get passed over when promotion opportunities come around. To put it mildly, Carla is one seething, lonely clump of resentment.

At one point, however, she is allowed to hire an assistant. The specs she gives to the employment office sound like requirements for a personals ad, but they duly send around just-paroled criminal Paul Angeli (Cassel). He has no office skills to speak of and, as previously mentioned, is nothing most Western cultures would consider a prize. But Paul's felonious abilities prove a boon to Carla's career advancement, much as his dependence on her touches a withered nerve.

When Paul is forced to take a second job at a bar owned by a crook he owes, the relationship's power valances shift. Now Paul's got more control, but he also needs Carla's lip-reading eyes to further a nefarious scheme of his own. The result is an intimacy of collusion that goes deeper than desire - or maybe not, depending on whose point of view we're with.

Audiard's film is being dubbed, tiresomely, Hitchcockian. But while there are unmistakable echoes of ``Rear Window'' in the piece, it's the behavioral minutiae and overriding romanticism that have long been hallmarks of French cinema that predominate here. The twisty climax is actually much hokier than anything Hitch would have permitted.

But that's about the only flaw in a film that boasts unique insights into what a little love and a lot of selfish looting can do to empower trampled souls. Anything but a feel-good movie in its particulars, ``Read My Lips'' nonetheless communicates a liberating message as refreshing as it is peculiar.

READ MY LIPS - Three and one half stars

(Not rated: violence, language, nudity)

Starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Vincent Cassel, Olivier Gourmet.

Director: Jacques Audiard.

Running time: 1 hr. 55 min.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Monica, Santa Monica; Fairfax, Los Angeles; University 6, Irvine.