M O V I E S Twilight Directed by Robert Benton Starring Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ALSO THIS WEEK The Big Lebowski The Coen brothers break out of the irony ghetto The Gingerbread Man Robert Altman goes Southern Gothic with his potent new thriller - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - LAST WEEK illtown Nick Gomez's mesmerizing crime story may be the best movie you won't get to see this year - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Blue Glow DAILY TV PICKS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - RECENTLY A full list of recent reviews, interviews and table talk. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE ARCHIVES MOVIES TELEVISION INTERVIEWS FEATURES

T H E S P I A N p.l e a s u r e s____ ROBERT BENTON'S MODEST NOIR ABOUT AGING AND __________ DEATH MAKES A SAFE SPACE FOR GREAT ACTING. BY CHARLES TAYLOR | In the midst of neo-noirs, postmodern noirs, sci-fi noirs, noirs where every genre trademark -- from classic cars to femmes fatales -- is presented as if it were a pristine exhibit at a museum of pop culture, the relaxed air of "Twilight" comes as a relief. Set in contemporary Los Angeles, it's a noir, plain and simple, not a twist on the genre or a dissertation. Handsomely shot by Piotr Sobocinski, "Twilight" clocks in at a trim, pleasurable 90 minutes. Though the mystery doesn't need nearly that long to unravel (every surprise is telegraphed), from moment to moment, the performances are all so good that it's easy to overlook the plot's flimsiness. A collaboration between Benton and novelist Richard Russo (whose book "Nobody's Fool" was the basis for Benton's last movie), the screenplay uses a detective story as a pretext for a film about aging and death. That's a sure way to invite the sentimentality that lurks beneath nearly every hard-boiled exterior; but when you're watching Paul Newman and Susan Sarandon engage in fond old-acquaintance backchat, or Newman and James Garner talking about what became of former cohorts, you remember how satisfying that sentimentality can be when it's held in check by an actor's intelligence. Newman plays Harry Ross, a retired private eye who's become a permanent house guest at the home of two old friends, movie stars Jack and Catherine Ames (Gene Hackman and Sarandon). A few years earlier, when their daughter Mel (Reese Witherspoon) ran off to Mexico with a boyfriend, Harry tracked her down and brought her home. But he got himself accidentally shot in the process and went into a boozing tailspin. Sober now, he's asked to do just enough so that everyone can pretend he's not living on the Ameses' charity. The plot hinges on a blackmail threat, the murder of a retired cop who may have been behind it and the never-solved disappearance of Catherine's first husband. Really, though, it's no more than an excuse for Benton to give his actors a series of extended scenes. "Twilight" hums with the pleasure the actors take in their work. Time and again, they come up with gestures or line readings that seem to contain the entirety of their characters. For Witherspoon, who's able to show the vulnerable side of a hard-edged kid without going soft, it's the little heartbreaker of a moment after she's made love with her boyfriend and asks him, "Do you love me? It's OK if you don't." And later, when she asks Harry point blank if he's in love with her mother and then assesses what awaits him with a pitiless "Poor you." For Stockard Channing, as Harry's old police partner, Verna, it's the embrace she gives Harry when she comes upon him unexpectedly at a murder scene followed by the brusque instruction to an officer: "Cuff him." For Liev Schreiber, as Mel's former boyfriend, it's the callowness that makes him a born patsy. For Garner's old buddy Ray, it's the suggestion of sneakiness beneath his usual relaxed ease. And for Margo Martindale, who, as one of the blackmailers, is in a great tradition of tough, wisecracking movie broads, it's the rueful weight she puts on her final line, "I never learn." It's a moment of classic noir futility, as devastating as the question at the end of Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing": "What's the use?" N E X T_P A G E _| Susan Sarandon's unexpected moves

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