‘School Ties’ Brendan Fraser has evolved considerably in the few months between his admirable new film, "School Ties," and his debut as a cave dude in "Encino Man" -- not that the movies really differ much thematically. Both turn on a teenager's driving need to win over his crowd, to fit in with the cool kids -- be he an unearthed Cro-Magnon, or as in this case, a Jewish quarterback who wins an athletic scholarship …showed first 75 words of 1017 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1017 total…the lushness of the privileged life and his bewilderment at its arcane ways. For his part, Fraser gives David a brooding dignity and a clear-eyed righteousness that gradually toughens as he wisens. But there's a dramatic imbalance to Dick Wolf and Darryl Ponicsan's screenplay. By making David a saint, they make his bigoted tormentors ultra-despicable. It's so easy to identify who's in the right that it's hard to remember this wrong may exist in us.