"SUNDAY" is a gothic horror tale in which the really awful thing you keep waiting to happen never happens. You nevertheless sit there breathing shallowly, under the threat.

The threat is that anyone in director Jonathan Nossiter's strange story might turn out to be a psycho killer. The homeless guys who roam the streets might attack innocent people. The husband (Larry Pine) of the heroine Madeleine (Lisa Harrow) might lash out and take vengeance on Matthew (David Suchet), the meek fellow she's brought home. Madeleine, an out-of-work actress, might turn out to have urges for redecorating men's bodies with gardening shears. What is most diverting about the script by Nossiter and James Lasdun is the way the human urge to tell stories is used as the movie's central conceit. Matthew wakes one lonely morning, uncomfortably performs his toilet and has breakfast at his homeless shelter. Then he takes to the streets of Queens, New York, where he encounters Madeleine, who takes him for a well-known director she's worked with. Matthew does nothing much to dissuade her. He accompanies her to her home for a drink and the two shamble through the awkwardness of flirtation.

At some point they couple but the sex seems puzzling to both of them. It becomes clear that neither of them has been entirely honest about themselves.

Both Madeleine and Matthew - or is his name really Oliver? - tell stories about themselves in the third person. All of this mysterious allusion just makes them seem more self-confident and assured than they originally appeared. Nervous Madeleine reveals herself to be tough and self-contained. Shy and nerdy Matthew turns out to be a brick wall of control and self-knowledge.

While the plot and outcome of "Sunday" may prove less than scintillating in the end, Nossiter's careful direction and calculated moodiness gives the film a satisfying lilt.

Movie Review "Sunday'

* CAST David Suchet, Lisa Harrow

* DIRECTOR Jonathan Nossiter

* WRITERS Nossiter, James Lasdun


* THEATER Embarcadero

* EVALUATION **1/4&lt;