Remote patrol weekend

"Dirty Pictures" is an unbalanced and uneven docudrama about the controversial 1989 exhibit of the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in Cincinnati. The film will be shown at 8 p.m. Saturday on Showtime. James Woods is terrific as Dennis Barrie, the art curator who allowed Mapplethorpe's controversial prints into his gallery and later was put on trial for criminal obscenity. Much of "Dirty Pictures" focuses on the public scrutiny and ostracization he and his family endured during the exhibit and trial. The film's major flaw is its attempt to blend dramatization, documentary style and advocacy. Although the main story is fictionalized, sound bites are dropped in from actual critics and defenders of the Mapplethorpe exhibit, including commentators Bill Buckley and Fran Lebovitz, author Salman Rushdie and congressman Barney Frank. The effect is disorienting, especially since Mapplethorpe's defenders always sound much more eloquent and reasoned than his critics. And the movie's direction is horrible: Whenever someone is shown looking at the photographs, they invariably flinch as though hit by a shovel. The trial's many overwrought moments suggest someone watched too many episodes of "The Practice." After the movie Showtime airs a documentary on Mapplethorpe and the exhibit brouhaha. @ART CAPTION:Mapplethorpe @ART CREDIT:MAPPLETHORPE ESTATE @ART CAPTION:Woods @ART:Photos (2) >>>