Eyre’s “Skins”: No “Smoke Signals 2”

When “Smoke Signals” was released in 1998, it began the movie career not only of Sherman Alexie but of Chris Eyre as well. From Klamath Falls, Ore., originally, Eyre is a graduate of the New York University film school , so he’s certainly knows which end of the camera to look into.

“Smoke Signals” was based on Sherman Alexie’s adaptation of a short story from his book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.” In his new movie “Skins,” which should show up in your neighborhood video store on Tuesday, Eyre is working from an adaptation of Adrian C. Louis’ similarly titled novel. The movie involves a tribal police investigator Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig) who must confront the problems facing his tribe, himself and, most of all, his self-destructive brother (Graham Greene).

Don’t expect “Smoke Signals 2.” Eyre gets decent enough performances from Schweig (“The Last of the Mohicans”), who plays a man caught between the law and his own innate sense of justice, and Greene (“The Green Mile”) is solid as a Vietnam veteran still haunted by ghosts that only he can see. But Eyre tries too hard to make the BIG STATEMENT when the simple truth will do.