GRAND DAMES, FAMILIAR PARTS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

SMITH, MAGGIE. Age 70. Brilliantly plays tart, prickly dowagers. Or ditherers. Very classy. Every bit the Dame.

Dench, Judi. Age 70. Longtime friend of Smith, Maggie. London stage star earned her movie laurels later. Tres petite. Excels at portraying wounded and emotionally vulnerable figures who are expected to be stronger than they actually are (see ``Mrs. Brown'' or ``Iris''). Rarely dithers.

``Ladies in Lavender'': Straight-ahead weepie about a pair of elderly sisters - one a widow, the other a spinster - who rescue a young man from the sea, care for and grow to love him, and then lose him to violin stardom. The third screen collaboration between Smith and Dench is proof positive that the Dames are a pair of old pros (of course, we mean that affectionately ... ).

Except that the ladies in question should have switched roles. Just to shake things up.

The role of Ursula Widdington - who is still clinging to a love from girlhood, which she transfers to the handsome Polish foundling, Andrea (Daniel Bruhl) - is a cakewalk for Dench, whose disheveled gray hair and tragic eyes suggest decades of isolation and heartbreak. And few people can infuse a line like ``What were you thinking'' with as much high-hatted bewilderment - and, yes, sisterly tenderness - as Smith, playing the widowed Janet.

Adapting a short story by William J. Locke to make ``Ladies in Lavender'' a Dench-Smith vehicle, Charles Dance (also the film's director) embraces the tale's gentleness, the local color and the magnificent seaside scenery. Once Andrea is in the household, the story drifts gradually away from his pair of motherly caretakers and toward the young man himself.

Andrea initially speaks no English, but in any language, Bruhl has a mischievous air that he unleashes most puckishly on the Widdingtons' housemaid, Dorcas (Miriam Margolyes). And when he picks up a violin, can the boy ever fiddle (Joshua Bell provides the soundtrack). Olga, the German artist down the road (Natasha McElhone), hears the music and quickly realizes that Andrea is intended for greater things than near imprisonment in a tiny seaside town. The filmmakers might have found someone a bit less Colleen-esque to play a German than McElhone, but we'll let that pass.

``Ladies in Lavender'' isn't a mystery; the film somewhat explains how Andrea washed up on the shore and why he has no home to return to (we're between the first and second world wars). And it becomes obvious fairly quickly that Ursula is either going to get her heart stomped or enter ``Harold and Maude'' territory.

That latter option being a slim possibility at best, we end up with Janet and Ursula back where they started: wandering the beach and wearing what doesn't even look like the color lavender. A sweet and easy tale, certainly, but is it really the strongest use of a couple of grand Dames?

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

LADIES IN LAVENDER - Two and one half stars

(PG-13: language)

Starring: Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Natasha McElhone.

Director: Charles Dance.

Running time: 1 hr. 43 min.

Playing: Laemmle Fallbrook Cinema 7, Monica 4-Plex, Laemmle Playhouse 7, South Coast Village 3, Laemmle Town Center 5, Landmark Westside Pavilion Cinemas, ArcLight Hollywood, UA Marketplace.

In a nutshell: Two Dames, a seaside cottage and a handsome young fiddler equals ... about what you'd expect. Playing sisters, Judi Dench and Maggie Smith blend harmoniously.

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Photo:

Maggie Smith, left, and Judi Dench play sisters who take a mysterious, handsome, violin-playing stranger into their seaside home in ``Ladies in Lavender.''