Bedazzled (12) ***

PETER Cook and Dudley Moore's diabolically- lame take on the Faust legend may not seem the most obvious stuff for the writer-director of Groundhog Day and Analyze This to work with.

That Harold Ramis has made it a relatively fulfilling couple of hours is a tribute to his abilities and the performance he coaxes out of leading man Brendan Fraser, whose early attempts at comedy (California Man, George of the Jungle) never saw him stretch out of the brainless beefcake persona.

Here he plays office slave Elliot Richards, a socially inept loser who has fallen head over heels with co-worker Alison Gardner (Frances O'Connor, fresh from the hustle and bustle of Mansfield Park). The problem is that Elliot has no idea how to have a conversation and Alison hasn't even noticed him in the four years they've worked together.

Enter Elizabeth Hurley as the Versace-clad, pool-playing Lucifer, who grants hopeless, hapless Elliot seven wishes in return for his soul.

All well and good, except that Elliot can't quite get his wishes right. One minute he's a Columbian drug lord (wealthy, powerful, good looking) - a courageous five minute segment conducted in subtitled Spanish - but Alison is having an affair with her English teacher. Then he's the most sensitive man in the world (kind, considerate, in touch with himself) - but Alison wants a bit of rough. Elliot tries on the guise of a 7ft 6in basketball star (heroic, popular) - but lacking in the trouser department. Next he's a best-selling author (witty, intelligent, charming) - but also gay. And so it goes on.

It all rattles along quite nicely, providing a few laugh-out-loud moments, until it meets an ending so inexplicably pat it almost takes your breath away.

Elliot's redemption is a result of an action we had no clue he could ever conceive of committing and we are given very little reason for it.

Oh well, that's the way of these things. Bedazzled is a amiable enough movie that warrants a watch on a rainy evening.