MORE THAN A MAN ON TRIAL IN 'SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

In a season chock-full of big-screen adaptations of literary favorites, ``Snow Falling on Cedars'' has the distinction of being the most beautiful and the most maddening of the lot.

Director Scott Hicks, in his first film since ``Shine,'' has crafted a strikingly evocative adaptation of David Guterson's best-selling tale, but he has splintered the story into so many flashback fragments that the film eventually crashes under the weight of its own ambitions.

Hicks, who co-wrote the screenplay with the ubiquitous Ron Bass (with an assist, apparently, from Guterson himself), would have done better to more fully concentrate on the book's more straightforward narrative elements. Instead, he loses himself (and, in turn, the audience) in the heavy atmospherics of the film's Pacific Northwest setting, weaving a heavily impressionistic yarn that somehow fails to covey the rich rewards of the textured novel. Hicks' approach eventually becomes tedious, and, by the film's last half-hour, everything feels repetitive, a cinematic snow job with no dramatic cohesion.

The movie begins, promisingly enough, on a dark and stormy night. A fisherman, fighting a winter storm off Washington's San Piedro Island, falls overboard and eventually washes up in the harbor the next morning. Despite having only the flimsiest of evidence, the local police arrest a handsome young Japanese-American, Kazuo Miyamoto (Rick Yune), and charge him with murder. The subsequent trial, which begins on the ninth anniversary of Pearl Harbor, reopens old wounds and bitter prejudices between the Japanese-American and Anglo populations.

Covering the trial for the town's small newspaper is Ishmael Chambers (Ethan Hawke), a young man burdened by his late newspaper father's crusading legacy (Sam Shephard plays the uncompromising journalist) as well as his own connection to the defendant. At this point, the story begins its flood of fragmental flashbacks, returning to Ishmael's adolescence to reveal his love affair with the young Japanese-American woman Hatsue (Youki Kudoh), who eventually became Miyamoto's wife.

Tortured over his past with Hatsue, Ishmael must grapple with his conscience. He doesn't believe Miyamoto killed the local fisherman; in fact, he has uncovered evidence that could well help acquit him. But Ishmael has never forgiven Hatsue for marrying Miyamoto, and the bitterness clouds his judgment.

The story has a host of compelling elements the forbidden interracial romance, the murder mystery, the painful flashbacks involving World War II internment camps. And the trial scenes are quite involving, thanks in large part to the talents of Max von Sydow, who plays the elderly defense attorney.

But in his bold attempt to capture the novel's lush dream world, Hicks goes overboard with a flurry of stylistic tricks and sinks the story in the process. The film is gorgeous to watch; indeed, cinematographer Robert Richardson's carefully composed wintry visuals are nothing short of extraordinary. But the pretty pictures can't cover the sins of redundancy, which is why this ``Snow'' ultimately feels like a tempest in a teapot.

The facts

The film: ``Snow Falling on Cedars'' (PG-13; disturbing images, sensuality and brief strong language).

The stars: Ethan Hawke, Youki Kudoh, Max von Sydow.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Scott Hicks. Screenplay by Hicks and Ron Bass (based on the novel by David Guterson).

Running time: Two hours, 10 minutes.

Playing: Mann Festival in Westwood.

Our rating: two and a half stars