OBJECT LESSON OF `RUBIES' CHAFES.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

``A Price Above Rubies'' plops your basic, Hollywood female empowerment formula in the middle of a Brooklyn Hasidic community with results that, as you'd well imagine, are more than a little bit awkward. While ``I gotta be me'' stories undoubtedly unfold among the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, writer-director Boaz Yakin (``Fresh'') fails to convince us that they'd play out like this.

As for the controversy the film has raised, Hasidic critics have correctly perceived that Yakin is no fan of fundamentalism and occasionally presents unsavory stereotypes. One character in particular, Christopher Eccleston's Sender, is so crudely conceived he comes off as a Dickensian caricature. The fact that most of the main roles are played by gentiles, while not exactly validating perceptions of anti-Semitism, doesn't do anything to alleviate them.

On the other hand, Yakin is evidently just out to criticize excessively rigid beliefs. Many scenes and characters even show Orthodox Judaism in a positive, even approving light. But there's no doubt our sympathies are meant to be with our heroine, a young wife and mother named Sonia Horowitz, who simply isn't made for the religious lifestyle.

Played by ``Jerry Maguire's'' warm and winsome Renee Zellweger, Sonia has inherited her father's expertise with gems and is married to Mendel (Glenn Fitzgerald), a Talmudic scholar who's sweet and solicitous but more devoted to God than he is to her. This makes Sonia increasingly unhappy. She wants passion. She wants more engaging work than rocking the cradle and selecting wallpaper.

She gets Sender. Mendel's id-reflection brother runs a small but lucrative jewelry business, and, a few days after discovering Sonia's keen eye and frustrated libido, comes over to offer her a job. And a quickie. Sender's hit-and-run romantic technique is barely an improvement on his brother's, but the illicitness of it all intrigues the confused, naive Sonia.

And the rough-and-tumble of New York's jewelry trade invigorates her. Sonia soon becomes one of the shrewdest, most tasteful buyers in the business. Of course, you don't get anywhere in a field like this without hard work, and Mendel is soon complaining that she's never home anymore and neglecting their son.

When Sonia discovers a talented Latino designer, Ramon (Allen Payne), everyone gets the wrong idea. Sender, Mendel and their devout sister Rachel (``ER's'' Julianna Margulies, vivid but somewhat underused) close ranks, sort of, to try to bring wild Sonia back into line. But a little bit of freedom proves a dangerous thing, depending on your conception of danger, and once on the road to self-realization, Sonia proves formidably strong-willed.

Zellweger has a few extremely powerful scenes - her temperature-raising attempt to explain her consuming sexual longing to an aged rebbe (John Randolph) is funny, heartbreaking and riveting all at once - and she generally succeeds at leavening Sonia's cranky self-absorption with the infectious delight of dawning liberation. But there are any number of moments, too, when you feel like Zellweger would be more at home milking cows in Kansas than schlepping rocks on 47th Street.

The child ghost of Sonia's brother and an old, homeless woman full of sage, cryptic advice appear suddenly when our gal needs a little moral support or good-humored scolding. I guess this mysticism is meant to evoke old Yiddish folk stories, but it has the effect of undercutting what should be a thoroughly psychological/ethical conflict.

Then again, when Yakin ventures into scriptural debate, you kind of wish the apparitions would drop in and tell everybody to shut up or say something intelligent. Sonia's arguments with true believers rarely rise above the ``God didn't mean that!/Did so!'' stage.

Actually, ``A Price Above Rubies'' is at its best when capturing quiet moments of human connection; Hasidics admiring a Puerto Rican family's home altar, say, or a husband and wAife discovering the joy of agreeing to disagree. After all the grinding struggles over conformity and frustration and not fitting in, these are truly ``Rubies' '' most valuable moments.

THE FACTS

The film: ``A Price Above Rubies'' (R; sex, language, nudity).

The stars: Renee Zellweger, Christopher Eccleston, Glenn Fitzgerald, Allen Payne, Julianna Margulies.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Boaz Yakin. Produced by Lawrence Bender and John Penotti. Released by Miramax Films.

Running time: One hour, 56 minutes.

Playing: Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

Our rating: Two and One Half Stars.