NO SPIELBERG SENTIMENTALITY IN COMPLEX 'MUNICH'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

'MUNICH'' IS ONE of those rare films that almost seems pointless to review immediately. Steven Spielberg's study of an assassination team out to avenge the terrorist murders of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics will likely take multiple viewings over years to fully and fairly assess as either a work of art or a political/morality play.

Right now, the film appears to have enough faults to compromise its more abundant fine qualities. Structured and shot like an international thriller from the 1970s, the narrative (``Forrest Gump's'' Eric Roth receives a credit, but most of it was written by ``Angels in America'' playwright Tony Kushner) is more episodic than barreling, and the dialogue is riddled with bouts of obvious soul-searching.

Yet the film's central premise - that thoughtful Jews, no matter how much they love Israel (and how well they know why they need to), may find killing in the name of their country and people soul-destroying - seems to demand the almost Talmudic degree of argument ``Munich'' indulges. It may have felt like listening to a series of position papers while watching the movie, but each of those speeches, in retrospect, seems integral to the film's knotty, perhaps irresolvable thematic point.

Spielberg doesn't attempt to resolve it, which is kind of astounding for a consummate showman who's sometimes sacrificed artistic integrity to ensure audiences leave the theater satisfied. If there's any sentimentality in ``Munich,'' it's for a Jewish ethical ideal that its main protagonist, Eric Bana's undercover squad leader Avner, can't possibly maintain if he's to do what he must. Even the usual comforts of motherhood and family are coldly subverted in this Spielberg film.

All of which should have critics, if not the ``E.T.''-loving masses, cheering yet another giant step in this cinematic master's maturation. Frustratingly, though, ``Munich'' doesn't feel like it has replaced the simple emotional pleasures of Spielberg's past with the more complex and profound truths that this story demands. They're there intellectually, loud and clear. But the gut impact, at least on first viewing, lacks the shell-shock power of ``Saving Private Ryan,'' Spielberg's other movie about good men fighting the right fight for the best reasons and still being damned.

That could be because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the heart of ``Munich'' is more intractable than the long-settled World War II. But it might also have something to do with casting. Australian actor Bana is fine to a certain point, but as his performance in ``The Hulk'' indicated, his gift for projecting inner turmoil only goes so far before it starts to look like an actor straining. If ever a role required a young Nic Cage or Sean Penn, this is it.

The son, significantly, of German Jews, Avner's devotion to Israel is matched only by his love for his expectant wife, Daphna (Ayelet Zurer). When no less than Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) asks her former bodyguard to give up all connections with the world he knows to lead one of several hit squads against Palestinians who planned the Munich massacre, Avner can't say no.

But as he hops around Europe and the Mediterranean with a semi-competent team - their bomb guy (Mathieu Kassovitz), for example, is really just a Belgian toy maker whose explosives skills leave a lot to be desired - Avner starts to wonder if his Mossad handler (an effectively creepy Geoffrey Rush) is using his group for less-justifiable assassinations.

Paranoia kicks in as the other members of the squad (Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds and Hanns Zischler, none of whose characters are delineated too deeply) debate the morality of their mission - then start turning up dead themselves.

Ultimately, Avner reaches a state where he doesn't know who to trust. And he's right, but the thing that's betrayed him most is his own inner sense of justice.

Spielberg stages a number of terrific sequences: several hotel hits that go awry, murky encounters with a strangely nurturing French family that deals in deadly information, an absurd bit where Avner's men and some PLO boys must bunk together and bond.

But there are also moments that may be classic or just wrongheaded (only time will tell). One involves the Hitchcockian use of a little girl and a booby-trapped telephone. Another is a love scene intercut with flashbacks to the Olympics debacle; as much as you want to applaud Spielberg for finally, frankly depicting sex, you're not quite sure he should be doing it like this.

There have already been complaints that ``Munich'' is too liberal, and there will surely be others that it only pretends to humanize Palestinians while still demonizing them as terrorists. These are understandable, immediate reactions. But there is no denying that something much richer and morally intricate is going on in ``Munich.'' It may take us years to work it all out. For a filmmaker who made his fortune providing instant gratification, though, this already looks like the boldest creative leap of all.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

MUNICH - Three stars

(R: violence, nudity, sex, language, drug use)

Starring: Eric Bana, Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, Mathieu Amalric, Ayelet Zurer, Michael Lonsdale.

Director: Steven Spielberg.

Running time: ! rpt! 2 hr. 45 min.

Playing: Selected theaters.

In a nutshell: Perhaps Spielberg's most morally complex film, this study of an Israeli assassination team unfortunately suffers from stuttering narrative momentum and dialogue, which, while making valuable points, can sound like seminar lectures. Some brilliant scenes and outstanding performances, plus a generally astute inquiry into the personal price of killing for your country.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) ``The Ringer''

(2 -- cover -- color) ``Rumor Has It''

(3 -- cover -- color) ``Munich''

(4 -- cover -- color) ``New World''

(5) Avner (Eric Bana) walks with his Mossad handler (Geoffrey Rush) in the morally gray ``Munich.''