He spends his evenings writing articles for publications he assumes no one ever reads, and during the day he's just another intimidated worker. But when a friend disappears, Kafka begins asking questions and soon finds himself embroiled in mystery and intrigue, encountering shady characters whose motives are vague. In fact, everything about this film, in terms of plot, is vague. Including its disappointing punchline.

But there are some wonderful actors at work here - Alec Guinness as the chief clerk, Joel Grey as a weaselly middle-management clerk, Theresa Russell as an anarchist, Jeroen Krabbe as an intellectual gravedigger, Armin Mueller-Stahl as a mysterious policeman, etc.

And quite often, the visual feast is enough to hold audience attention. But, in the end, it all feels rather empty.

"Kafka" is rated PG-13 for some violence, gore and nude photos.

- "UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD" is a film by Wim Wenders, who gave us the striking and compelling "Wings of Desire" and "Paris, Texas." But he stumbles here, with a movie that is pompous, meandering, ridiculously self-important and way too long at more than 21/2 hours.

Set largely in 1999, with all sorts of goofy futuristic gadgets popping up from scene to scene, the central focus is on Claire (Solveig Dommartin, the trapeze artist in "Wings of Desire"), the kind of flighty woman often depicted in movies as an example of attractive freedom. But she's really just selfish and aimless.

The first half or two-thirds of the movie has Claire running money for a pair of bank robbers, then globe-trotting to follow an industrial spy (or is he?), played by William Hurt, with whom she has become enamored.

Meanwhile, a nuclear satellite hovers over the Earth, threatening to crash - though no one is quite sure where on the planet it will land.

After nearly two hours, the film finally settles into a story, with Hurt taking a special camera his father invented - but which he had to steal from the government - to his parents in the Australia outback. His father (Max Von Sydow) is a gruff, insensitive scientist, but his blind mother (Jeanne Moreau) is quite loving, and it is for her that he has stolen this invention. (Think "Brainstorm" here.)

The film offers some interesting moments, and if Wenders had pared it down to about 90 minutes, there might even be some fascination. As it is, however, "Until the End of the World" is merely dull.

It is rated R for violence, profanity, sex and nudity.