UPLIFTING `LIVING OUT LOUD' CONNECTS IN GENUINE WAY.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Daily News Film Critic

``Living Out Loud'' is a little film about people fighting loneliness in the Big Apple. The movie marks the directorial debut of esteemed screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (``The Fisher King,'' ``The Horse Whisperer,'' ``Beloved'') and it succeeds in achieving its modest goals with a tough-minded realism that's typically absent from romantic movies.

LaGravenese (who also wrote the screenplay) dispenses with the cutesy-pie dramatics from the outset when we're introduced to Judith Nelson (Holly Hunter), a woman adrift after her wealthy doctor husband left her for a younger woman. We're present at the dumping.

Since Judith has spent so much of her life absorbed in denying her own dreams to please her husband, she has little identity left of her own once he walks out. You can feel her emptiness just by looking at the bare walls of her apartment. This is a solitary soul who watches and worries over the depressing events on the evening news simply because the background noise keeps her company.

In an attempt to reconnect with the outside world, Judith begins frequenting Jasper's, a downtown jazz club that features a sultry chanteuse (Queen Latifah) as its featured entertainment. At first, Judith is more successful fantasizing about meeting people than she is in actually making contact. But that changes through a passionate case of mistaken identity. One kiss and Judith is on the road to recovery.

It's a bumpy ride, though. Seeing things as if for the first time, Judith forms a friendship with her building's elevator operator, Pat (Danny DeVito). Pat is another dreamer whose life is on the skids - terminally ill daughter, terminally absent wife and a pile of debt owed to underworld loan sharks. While Pat never stops believing in himself, he realizes his life would be a lot better if he had someone who shared that belief.

Enter Judith.

LaGravenese, who based his screenplay on two short stories by Anton Chekhov, ``The Kiss'' and ``Misery,'' has created a sweet, uplifting movie that never lapses into easy sentimentality or predictability. The film's basic message - redemption can come from the smallest of human connections - is elegantly stated through believable characters who never lose their messy foibles just so we'll like them better.

DeVito gives a charmingly vulnerable performance and Queen Latifah does some surprisingly credible versions of jazz and pop standards. But the movie belongs to Hunter, who, in the film's scant 93-minute running time, conveys a vivid portrait of a woman in her mid-40s rediscovering what it means to be authentic and alive.

The findings don't set off any huge emotional fireworks or grand insights into life's deeper meanings. But they make for a nice human moment or two, which counts for something when it pertains to movies and, quite often, everything when it pertains to reality.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Living Out Loud'' (R; language, sexuality).

The stars: Holly Hunter, Danny DeVito, Queen Latifah.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Richard LaGravenese. Released by New Line Cinema.

Running time: One hour, 33 minutes.

Playing: AMC Century 14, Century City; Beverly Center Cineplex, Beverly Hills; Cineplex Odeon Broadway Cinemas, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Three stars.

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Photo

Photo: Holly Hunter and Danny DeVito star in ``Living Out Loud.''