WHY LEONARD COHEN IS SUCH A BIG DEAL.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

He said it, self-mockingly, in his 50th or 60th masterpiece, ``Tower of Song'':

``I had no choice, I was born with the gift of a golden voice.''

And ``Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man'' once again proves that when it comes to the melancholy compositions of the only man who can stand beside Bob Dylan as North America's greatest living songwriter, they sound best rendered through Cohen's own key-challenged croak.

Not that there haven't been lovely recordings of ``Suzanne'' and ``Sisters of Mercy'' and ``Bird on a Wire'' over the years. But much like every Cohen tribute album of the past few decades, this primarily concert film reinforces the fact that only Cohen knows the crucial tone with which his songs are best orchestrated and sung.

With that out of the way, if you're at all a Cohen fan, you've got to see ``I'm Your Man.'' Directed by Australia's Lian Lunson (``Willie Nelson Down Home'') and built around the 2005 ``Came So Far for Beauty'' tribute concert at the Sydney Opera House, the movie features both stirring and quizzical performances. But it's fortified with excerpts from a biographical interview with Cohen, as well as testimonials from many of the performers as to his genius (one aspect of his life that Cohen, humbly and wisely, neglects to address).

We learn much about his meticulous, long-haul work process and his interpretation of some of his more complex opuses (I was gobsmacked to hear that the song that's always struck me as his most devastating, ``The Traitor,'' is in Cohen's view an upbeat ode to accepting life's compromises).

He unnecessarily apologizes for his ``ungallant'' disclosure that ``Chelsea Hotel #2'' was about Janis Joplin, and gives a humorous account of his sojourns in and out of a Zen monastery. It's all great, expertly delivered stuff, punctuated with Cohen's own drawings and footage of his Montreal stomping grounds.

Oh, the songs? Well, I'd say The Handsome Family's ``1000 Kisses Deep'' and Jarvis Cocker's ``Death of a Ladies Man'' come closest to visiting that true Leonardland of gorgeous depression. Rufus Wainwright and a bunch of his relatives mess up ``Everybody Knows,'' but he redeems himself with a soulful ``Chelsea'' and, appropriately enough, a solid ``Hallelujah.''

Other acts include Nick Cave, Beth Orton and the amazing falsetto warbler Antony. The film crescendos with Cohen's only vocal, on a separately staged ``Tower of Song,'' backed by a reverent U2.

You leave the theater in no doubt that he was born with the gift.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

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LEONARD COHEN: I'M YOUR MAN - Three stars

(PG-13: language)

Starring: Leonard Cohen, U2, Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Jarvis Cocker.

Director: Lian Lunson.

Running time: 1 hr. 44 min.

Playing: Laemmle Sunset 5, West Hollywood; Laemmle Monica, Santa Monica.

In a nutshell: Tribute concert acts interspersed with wry, enlightening interview snippets of maybe our greatest -- but at least our second-greatest -- living musical poet. It would've been better if Cohen had performed more of his own songs, though.

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Photo:

Rufus Wainwright is among those who pay tribute to the subject of ``Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man.''