Complex 'Castle' a morality tale / Redford, Gandolfini clash in prison

THE LAST CASTLE: Action. Starring Robert Redford and James Gandolfini. Directed by Rod Lurie. (R. 120 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

Redford is in that wonderful stage of his career and his art where every gesture has meaning. Whether he's supplying the meaning, through his performance, or we're supplying it, through our understanding of Redford, doesn't matter. When he sees an injustice and turns his head to look at the perpetrator, we feel the moral weight. He plays a former three-star general, and the aura -- of a man who has meant something to a lot of people for a long time -- is Redford's own.

Gandolfini is at a different stage, one in which audiences like what they've seen so far but are still discovering what he can do. Here he plays a bookish colonel in charge of a military prison who finds out that Redford -- a hero stripped of his rank for insubordination -- will be serving time under his roof. The imminent presence of a legendary combat leader brings out all of the warden's insecurity.

Though icy intellectuals come in all sizes, big guys like Gandolfini don't usually get to play them. The unusual casting of Gandolfini, not to mention the somewhat unlikely casting of Redford (who is no George C. Scott), creates the illusion that "The Last Castle" presents a straightforward struggle between good and evil. It doesn't, really, and one has to assume that the filmmakers know it.

"The Last Castle" gives us two men on a collision course. The warden breaks the men's spirits, inflicts cruel punishments and sometimes even has prisoners killed. The general, conversely, inspires the men, with his quiet strength, to transcend their physical and mental bonds. He's a leader who gradually transforms a bunch of self-hating slobs into an army ready to take over the castle-like prison. Yet the strategic maneuvering and fireworks distract us from the central question: Is this really a good idea?

Perhaps the key to "The Last Castle" comes in the brief and beautifully acted scene between Redford and Robin Wright Penn, in an uncredited cameo as his daughter. She arrives on visiting day, tells him he's a great man, but she wants nothing to do with him. In the moment, that seems harsh. Maybe she knows something.

"The Last Castle," on the surface, seems like a naive film about a great leader's capacity to inspire. But it's also about the clueless vanity and destabilizing allure of that kind of personality. Mark Ruffalo, as a cynical prisoner, spends a good deal of the movie trying to decide whether to follow his reason and self-interest -- or give in to the blind impulse to follow the daddy figure. Daddy makes the kids feel good, but it doesn't mean Father knows best.

This is third film from director Rod Lurie that seems to mean one thing but means another upon reflection. "Deterrence" (1999) was the story of a president who drops a nuclear bomb on Baghdad, a man presented as a hero, but he's a monster. Likewise "The Contender" (2000), about a vice presidential nominee's confirmation hearings, pulled back from what seemed to be its premise -- that a candidate's private life is of no significance.

Lurie is either brilliant, manipulating genre conventions to test his audience's ability to tease out moral issues -- or he can't think straight. But people who can't think straight usually don't make three good movies in a row.