It seems like it's taken at least a decade — instead of just a couple of years — for Benjamin Bratt to finally find his breakout role.

After leaving the hit television series "Law & Order" in 1999, Bratt appeared in a pair of cinematic duds, "The Next Best Thing" and "Red Planet," which represented a big step backward.

"Pinero," on the other hand, is Bratt's big step forward. There's no denying that his riveting, live-wire performance as the title character here energizes an otherwise sketchy biography about the late "Nuyorican" poet, playwright and actor.

Like Pinero's real life, the film itself is messy, edgy and too short. None of those things make the movie easy to watch — and the flashback-heavy story structure makes it hard, if not impossible, to figure out what time period is being shown in certain scenes.

However, the film does smartly dispense with the early portion of Pinero's life — save for a handful of brief flashbacks — and instead concentrates on the period after he was released from New York's Sing Sing Prison in the early '70s.

Having demonstrated some talent for poetry and writ-

ing, "Mikey" is paroled and manages to get legendary Broadway producer Joseph Papp (Mandy Patinkin) to mount a production of his harrowing, award-winning prison-life play "Short Eyes."

He also finds a mentor in the person of Miguel Algarin (Giancarlo Esposito), a former university professor who helps him found the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which becomes a forum for his art and that of other Puerto Rican performers.

Unfortunately, none of this can help him find peace or the meaning to his life — nor can love, continued petty crime and drugs, and his use of the latter is getting progressively more serious.

Though Leon Ichasa's screenplay does make a good case for Pinero's possible genius, the director's stylistic experimentation — which includes grainy black-and-white photography and slick music video-style color work — is less successful.

However, his casting of Bratt is inspired, and the supporting cast turns in solid work, especially Esposito and Bratt's real-life love Talisa Soto. (Also, it's wonderful to see a rooftop dance by Rita Moreno, who plays Pinero's mother, even if it is for only a few seconds.)

"Pinero" is rated R for frequent use of strong, sexually related profanity, simulated drug use (heroin, cocaine and marijuana), violence (muggings and beatings), simulated sex, female nudity, use of crude sexual slang terms and crude sexual banter, attempted rape and scattered use of racial epithets. Running time: 90 minutes.

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E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com