All jests aside, Mathias' ``Cherry Orchard'' genuinely deserves full houses, and not simply because Bening, Alfred Molina, Lothaire Bluteau, Frances Fisher and the ``Orchard'' gang know exactly what they're about.

But his attempts at balancing the scale with demonstrations of Charlie's humanity are a bit ersatz: reaching out to a cute homeless man (Bent's Lothaire Bluteau) or comforting a chum dying of AIDS (Alan Cumming), By contrast, there is a genuine catharsis to be had in Reitz's resolution, which sidesteps its own "Charles Bronson in Death Wish "--fulfillment fantasies in favor of an alternative meant to heal.

For all its purposeful direction, artful photography, and good acting (Jared Harris capturing Warhol's crafty vacuousness to perfection and Lothaire Bluteau bringing Maurice Girondias to complex life), there's no mediating consciousness between us and the catastrophe that was Valerie Solanas.