VIDEO : INTO THE MIND OF ROBERT ALTMAN.

Byline: Rob Lowman Daily News Entertainment Editor

Watching a Robert Altman movie can be a frustrating experience for moviegoers. In his four-decade career, the maverick filmmaker has never been afraid to alienate critics and/or audiences with his quirky and unconventional style.

His latest film, ``The Gingerbread Man,'' recently hit video stores, and the so-called legal thriller based on a John Grisham script amply demonstrates Altman's faults and virtues.

Known for overlapping dialogue, improvisation with actors, restless camera movements and ironic takes on popular culture, Altman has always been less concerned with plot points and pyrotechnics than with - let's call it - his artistic big picture. ``The Gingerbread Man'' is typical of his films.

The story - as with many of Altman's films - is almost secondary. An amoral, high-priced lawyer, Rick Magruder (Kenneth Branagh), has a one-night stand with a waitress, Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz), who tells him her eccentric father, Dixon Doss (Robert Duvall), is threatening her. Hooked on her, Magruder quickly uses the resources of his firm to go to court and have Dixon put away. When Dixon escapes from a mental institution with the aid of a ragtag anti-government cult he leads, events spiral out of control.

Of course, nothing is what it seems, and Magruder's attempt to do the right thing - protect Mallory and his children and then later extricate himself from a murder rap - quickly goes awry. The plot echoes another Altman film, ``The Long Goodbye'' (1973), which is undoubtedly the oddest interpretation of Raymond Chandler's private detective Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) ever filmed. In ``Gingerbread Man,'' Altman has substituted an eery, rain-swept Southern Gothic atmosphere for an L.A. cut flat by the sun and colored by the smog.

``Goodbye'' is the superior picture. Like ``Gingerbread,'' its main character is a savvy guy who thinks he knows what's going on but is sadly mistaken. Marlowe innocently gives his friend Terry Lennox (former baseball pitcher Jim Bouton) a ride to Tijuana. Upon returning to L.A., Marlowe finds that Lennox is wanted for killing his wife and that he unwittingly helped him escape. Convinced Lennox is innocent, he tries to find her real killer. Of course (does this sound familiar?), nothing is what it seems, and things quickly go awry.

The films, like all of Altman's movies, are peppered with offbeat performances. Altman encourages his actors to develop their characters through improvisation, which is why he can attract high-powered stars like Julia Roberts - who had a cameo in ``The Player'' (1992) and a starring role in ``Ready to Wear'' (1994). In ``Goodbye,'' besides the casting of Bouton, director Mark Rydell does a memorable turn as a sadistic gangster, and Sterling Hayden is a Hemingway-like novelist with writer's block. And one of Rydell's thugs is played by Arnold Strong, who later went back to his real name - Schwarzenegger.

In ``Gingerbread,'' we have a stoned-out private detective, played by Robert Downey Jr., and Duvall, who starred in two early Altman films - ``Countdown'' (1968) and ``MASH'' (1970), the critical and box-office success that made Altman's reputation.

Much like a painter, Altman developed many of his ideas and themes early on and has explored them with a varying degrees of success since. Look at ``MASH'' - the overlapping dialogue was there.

So what is Altman's aim here? First, he's trying to give a naturalistic feel to a scene. With people talking over each other and multiple conversions going on, it may seem more real. It's a technique that others have copied, but few will let a scene go on and seem as unfocused as Altman. This is disturbing to many filmgoers, but instead of trying to manipulate them, Altman has a second purpose - to give the audience a perspective on the scene.

It's technique that is close to pure cinema - the dialogue is secondary to the picture. Altman isn't interested in you following every word. He wants you to look at the whole picture - the different relationships - instead of following a linear plot line.

And much like repeated viewing of a masterpiece, repeated viewing of the best Altman films yields interesting nuggets. On the other hand, Altman will let scenes get away from him, perhaps indulging himself and his actors with overly long takes.

Altman at worst can still be interesting, too, because he's always trying to subvert our expectation and open our eyes. ``Gingerbread'' - despite some good performances and its creepy, moody atmosphere - is so-so Altman. But there are plenty of good Altman films in the video stores to check out. Try ``MASH,'' ``McCabe and Mrs. Miller'' (1971), ``The Long Goodbye,'' ``Thieves Like Us'' (1974), the underrated ``Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson'' (1976), ``3 Women'' (1977), ``The Player'' (1992), ``Short Cuts'' (1993), ``Nashville'' (1975), ``Ready to Wear'' (1994) and ``Kansas City'' (1996).

Maybe by that time, you'll buy into the Altman vision enough to check out ``The Gingerbread Man.''

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Photo

Photo: Actors Kenneth Branagh, left, Tom Berenger and director Robert Altman share a moment on the set of ``The Gingerbread Man.''