BY BOB STRAUSS >FILM CRITIC

“American Gangster’s” long struggle to reach the screen hardly shows. It’s slick and played with confident brio, while just gritty enough to give the illusion of real life.

Basically, it's Ridley Scott's version of a Michael Mann cops-and-crimelords thriller. That means it's more than perfectly serviceable, though less than immersing like great Scorsese. Actually, it's not even quite "Departed"-level Scorsese, though that, in many ways, is the aspiration.

Set during the Vietnam War, this more-or-less true story follows the parallel paths of inventive Harlem drug kingpin Frank Lucas and maverick Jersey cop Richie Roberts.

Denzel Washington brings all of his beguiling class and intimidating fearsomeness - and his quick-flash ability to morph between the two - to the shrewd, contradictory Lucas.

Russell Crowe portrays Roberts as both a mess and a mensch; he's so dedicated to the law, he not only turns in a million seized evidence bucks (something unheard of in the corruption-riddled 1960s, and which instantly makes other cops hate him), but studies to take the bar exam. When he has time to. When he's not cheating on his wife.

A Carolina country transplant who learned the local rackets as the legendary Bumpy Johnson's assistant, Lucas got the bright idea, following Johnson's 1968 death, to import the purest heroin from Southeast Asia directly to the East Coast on military transport planes. Though a ruthless killer both personally and through his product, Lucas seemed to genuinely see himself as a civic benefactor. He hobnobbed with New York's elite, married a Miss Puerto Rico, installed his whole family in legitimate front businesses and, apparently, only dressed flashy once (which, bad for him, Roberts saw, triggering his investigation).

These many facets to Lucas' personality, not to mention his subtle, practical take on race relations, give Washington a lot of great scenes to play. But superbly as he does them all, he never really takes us deep into Frank's soul. On the other hand, Crowe makes every move, right or wrong, on Roberts' part appear to come from deep in his heart. The problem with this character, though, is that some of his behavior feels like it's Hollywood constructed just to keep the character complex for complexity's sake - something screenwriter Steven Zaillian all but confirms in the film's press notes.

As long as we're criticizing, lesser figures are uniformly sketchy (Josh Brolin, as the ultimate dirty cop, rises highest above the underwritten mass). And while period detail is persuasive without, mercifully, being overobvious about it, a few plot points should have been made earlier rather than later. (Example: Lucas hid heroin in the coffins of our war casualties, but the film doesn't actually show him using this method until years after we'd pulled combat troops out of Vietnam).

"American Gangster," though, is a rip-snortin' tough-guy movie: the action's exciting violence shocks, its posturing amuses, and it's never less than seat-edge suspenseful.

Plus, even though the characters could be a little richer, "AG" tells a fantastic story of enterprise, ethics and flawed individuals trying to make a difference. And if you don't know how Lucas and Roberts' adventure turned out, get set for one surprising, satisfying kick of a conclusion.

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Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670

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AMERICAN GANGSTER 
>R: violence, nudity, sex, drug use, language, racism.
>Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Armand Assante, Lymari Nadal, Ruby Dee, Carla Gugino.
>Director: Ridley Scott.
>Running time: 2 hr. 38 min.
>Playing: Area wide.
>In a nutshell: Thoroughly professional, true-crime saga is expertly mounted in all departments but feels a bit hollow in the end.

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