HART'S War is a serious prisoner of war movie, so serious that Bruce Willis doesn't smile at the wonder of himself, not even at the black hairpiece plonked on his head.

Then again, Hart's War is a courtroom drama, a late, great escape story, and an American call for honour, duty, service and responsibility. Oh, and racism takes a bashing too. All this War & Peace & more besides in little more than two hours: inevitably too many cooks spoil the minestrone.

All is observed through the eyes of inexperienced Lieutenant Thomas W Hart (Irishman Colin Farrell, from Ballykissangel). The son of a senator, this Yale law student had been assigned to a desk job as an officer's aide in Belgium, when he is captured undertaking an escort duty and is imprisoned in a German PoW camp.

He is met with suspicion by curt, tough-nut Colonel William McNamara (a flint-eyed Willis), who suspects he caved in far too readily under Nazi interrogation. To test his bottle and mettle, McNamara places two black Air Force officers under Hart's protection, and with 1940s America still rotten with racist prejudice and division, Hart has to over-see an atmosphere of resentment and hatred.

One black officer is shot for "trying to escape", a set-up job under the orders of camp commandant Colonel Visser (Marcel Iures); the other is accused of murder after a white PoW is bumped off. Another set-up? Hart, still wet behind the ears in matters of law, is installed as counsel for the defendant; McNamara conducts the court martial; and the Nazi camp commandant, who happens to be a "negro jazz" aficionado and Harvard law graduate, oversees proceedings. All the while, a tunnel is being prepared for escape.

The director, Gregory Hoblit, is shovelling as well, and the more he digs, the more the hole fills with plot and sub-plot. Everyone, from Hoblit, to the contemplative Farrell, the pent-up Willis and the stand-out Iures, goes about his business gravely, the tone sombre, the pace slow-ticking, the story constantly evolving to maintain audience involvement.

However, in its desperation to be a heavyweight contender, Hart's War sacrifices integrity with its clich-soaked finale, where platitudes abound and America preaches its self-serving sermon once more. There doesn't always have to be a rose, Hollywood.

Updated: 08:51 Friday, May 24, 2002