'Romance's' creative moxie snuffs itself out too quickly

• The bold idea behind John Turturro's 2005 musical production "Romance and Cigarettes" is that pop tunes -- especially golden oldies -- provide the perfect soundtrack for the imperfect lives of blue-collar, New York City folks living in self-unactualized, emotionally inarticulate squalor.

After his wife, Kitty (Susan Sarandon), discovers evidence of extramarital hanky-panky, a distressed high-rise construction worker named Nick Murder ("Sopranos" star James Gandolfini) hits the street outside his house and breaks into song, "A Man Without Love," as a duet with the recorded voice of singer Engelbert Humperdinck.

Soon, neighbors and passing garbage men join in, and the whole scene looks like the urban version of the lawnmower ballet from John Hughes' "She's Having a Baby." Gandolfini's and Humperdinck's voices don't harmonize, or even blend. Turturro's not interested in singing skills, a good thing given the limited vocal talent (although Sarandon's musical resume includes "The Rocky Horror Picture Show").

Nick has the hots for Tula (Kate Winslet, utterly smoking in whatever she wears), a brassy underwear salesclerk who's an aging man's ideal sexual fantasy. The gotta-see supporting cast includes Christopher Walken as Cousin Bo, Steve Buscemi as Nick's buddy, and Mandy Moore as Nick's rocker daughter.

"Romance and Cigarettes" has plenty of creative moxie, but it snuffs itself out quickly. The film falls short of the cult extremes of an all-out, early John Waters film. And we can't escape the suspicion that having the original artists sing along with the stars covers a lot of embarrassment.

"Romance and Cigarettes" opens today at the Music Box, Chicago. Rated R (language, sexual situations). 106 minutes. ..

Note: Turturro will make personal appearances at the 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday showings at the Music Box, and at an earlier 1:15 p.m. Saturday showing at the Wilmette Theatre.

• Jessica Yu's exemplary documentary "Protagonist" consists of a series of snazzy moving graphics transitioning between 90 minutes of four talking heads, but what fascinating heads! Passionate, articulate and uncannily introspective, these four men open up their souls for Yu's camera. They talk about their lives, their dreams, their parents, their failures. By the end, we realize we've witnessed something utterly amazing: The getting of that elusive thing we call wisdom.

Yu interviews a Christian evangelist at odds with his gay orientation, a repentant German terrorist, a Hispanic bank robber and a martial-arts fanatic. Each man relates the significant events of his childhood, cutting through the usual macho front and coming to terms with the events and people who shaped him into an enlightened being. Yu, an Oscar-winning doc-maker, breaks up her static visuals by interjecting stick puppets acting as a Greek chorus.

As most of us remember from high school lit classes, ancient Greek heroes always suffered greatly for their wisdom. So did these four ordinary men, each anointed with an extraordinary story.

"Protagonist" opens today at the Music Box in Chicago. Rated R (language). 90 minutes. ...½