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Verdict: An odd mixture of civil rights drama and Southern Gothic comedy that goes down just fine.

Details: Starring Melanie Griffith, David Morse and Lucas Black. Rated PG-13 for some violence, thematic material, profanity and a scene of sensuality. 1 hour, 51 minutes.

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Review: "Crazy in Alabama" is like the husband of wacky Lucille (Melanie Griffith): It's cut in two parts that don't come together till the end. See, Lucille shocks her family in 1965 small-town Industry, Ala., by driving off to Hollywood, alone — except for the severed head of her abusive husband, whom she drugged with rat poison before taking an electric carving knife to his neck.

The movie splits focus between Lucille's wild adventures (winning big in Vegas, getting a gig on "Bewitched") and a graver story back home. Narrated by Lucille's nephew Peejoe (gravel-voiced Lucas Black of "Sling Blade"), the movie offers a microcosmic civil rights battle, as local black youth stage a sit-in at the "whites only" public pool, leading to a confrontation with racist sheriff Doggett (Meat Loaf Aday).

With its sexy, lethal and self-empowered heroine, half of "Crazy's" plot resembles the work of director Pedro Almodovar ("Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown"), in several of whose films first-time director Antonio Banderas once starred. The movie's other half seems like a retread of a socially conscious drama by Norman Jewison (whose "In the Heat of the Night" star Rod Steiger turns up here, stealing scenes as a hotheaded judge).

Neither screenwriter Mark Childress, adapting his own novel, nor Banderas can really solve the movie's split personality. But the thing is watchable; like Banderas' direction, it's professional and throws off some sparks, even if it doesn't ever fully catch fire.

David Morse as Griffith's concerned brother offers his reliable, stoic decency, and fine comic support comes from Fannie Flagg as a sympathetic waitress and Elizabeth Perkins as a snooty actress. As for Griffith, it's the best role she's had since "Working Girl," and she works it. Against odds, she manages to turn a run-of-the-mill courtroom speech into something poignant.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service

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