GRIM `LES MIS' REMAKE STEALS NOTHING FROM STAGE VERSION.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

The latest screen adaptation of Victor Hugo's durable ``Les Miserables'' is good-for-you cinema all the way. Meticulously mounted, unfailingly grave even as it sidesteps some of the ultimate downer novel's more depressing elements, watching it is like attending a particularly rich day at school.

But it's a day at school nonetheless.

There are good reasons why, nowadays, the stage version of ``Les Mis'' is enlivened with stirring music and comic relief, or why the last major movie version, Claude LeLouch's 1995 French production, cleverly updated many of the themes to an action-packed World War II. Ennobling as the sprawling tale of 19th-century suffering is (and remains in the new movie), it's grim to a borderline hokey extent, at least to most modern moviegoers' sensibilities.

That probably reflects worse on today's culture than it does on the story's intrinsic merits. Nevertheless, times change.

That said, novelist Rafael Yglesias' (``Fearless,'' ``Dr. Neruda's Cure for Evil'') had as sound a plan as any for adapting the monstrously unwieldy book. He boiled it down to the central conflict between Jean Valjean, the convict converted by kindness into a shiningly decent man, and Inspector Javert, the legalistic cop determined to punish Valjean for real infractions and imagined sins.

Not the most imaginative take, true, but in sync with director Bille August's literalist, plodding style. August has earned unaccountable praise for his overwrought yet straight-faced melodramas ``Pelle the Conqueror'' and ``Smilla's Sense of Snow,'' but he hits the emotional notes in this ``Les Mis'' strong and accurately.

Which means, of course, that hardly anyone ever cracks a smile.

Liam Neeson adds an appropriate, furtive quality to his usual world-saver persona as Valjean. He doesn't suffer quite as much as the novel's hero, but it's still a performance about forbearance - most of the real redemptive action takes place off screen.

Javert is played by ``Shine'' Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, and it's great casting on all counts. Rush's natural sourpuss look is perfect for a man who loves nothing but the law - and has been twisted by it. And there's something about the way Rush's jaw juts and his nose creases - like he's ready to take a bite out of something offensive - that trumpets the hunter's unforgiving implacability. All this, and Rush slips in just a smidgen of vulnerability to keep the character poignant.

Uma Thurman is all sweats and trembles as the doomed Fantine, and Claire Danes glows with life as her daughter Cosette, whom Valjean of course raises with all the love in his big, peasant heart. Again, who's to say such obvious interpretations are wrong? You can, however, say that neither woman's role boasts the compelling power of the two male leads'.

Besides wondering where the great songs went, fans of the musical will miss the amusingly awful innkeeper and his wife (they have one quick scene here), as well as Cosette's rival for the hunky Paris revolutionary Marius (Hans Matheson), Eponine, who scarcely appears at all.

August does a nice job of creating the grime and the grandeur of 1830s France. It was definitely a silly-hat-and-waistcoat period of history, but this is one aspect of the film that is helped by the director's lack of humor. In fact, everything about ``Les Miserables'' fits together impressively. Funny how a movie can appear so organic in that way, yet still have a brittle overall effect.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Les Miserables'' (PG-13; violence, children in jeopardy).

The stars: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Claire Danes, Uma Thurman.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Bille August. Written by Rafael Yglesias, based on Victor Hugo's novel. Produced by Sarah Radclyfe and James Gorman. Released by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, nine minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: Liam Neeson is converted convict Jean Valjean in the latest movie version of ``Les Miserables,'' based on Victor Hugo's novel.