FEAST OF LOVE — ** — Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear, Alexa Davalos; rated R (nudity, sex, profanity, violence, brief drugs, vulgarity)

For a film that tries to be a smarter, more cerebral, romantic comedy-drama, "Feast of Love" sure does a lot of dumb things.

The worst may be its frank depiction of sexuality. At times, "Feast" almost verges on soft-core porn, thanks to some rather racy and explicit sex scenes.

That will no doubt put off at least part of the film's target audience, the older, more conservative segment of the population that is always on the lookout for a good romance tale.

And "Feast of Love" does feature some pretty good performances, led by the always reliable Morgan Freeman, who stars as Harry Stevenson, a philosophy professor who's on extended leave from his university.

Harry has been spending much of his free time in a coffee shop owned by Bradley (Greg Kinnear), a big-hearted but clueless guy who was recently shattered by the news that his wife (Selma Blair) was in love with another woman. He's now dating a Realtor (Radha Mitchell), but she's having an affair with a married man (Billy Burke). Meanwhile, Bradley's employees Oscar and Chloe (Toby Hemingway and Alexa Davalos) are falling in love, despite some dire warnings — from a fortune teller and others.

Author Charles Baxter's multiple-character story may work on the printed page, but director Robert Benton and screenwriter Allison Burnett's adaptation comes off as a little contrived and convenient.

Also, there are too many characters here. It would be nice to get more time with the appealing Freeman and Jane Alexander, who plays his faithful and loving wife.

And despite his best efforts, Kinnear's sad-sack character is less interesting, as is Mitchell's unpleasant Realtor. Relatively unknown Davalos does impress, however.

"Feast of Love" is rated R for male and full female nudity, simulated sex and other sexual contact (gay and straight), strong sexual language (profanity, crude slang terms and other suggestive talk), violence (some brief fisticuffs and slapping), and brief drug references (hallucinogens and narcotics). Running time: 102 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com