'Missing Link' : (PG)

"Missing Link" is a Jekyll-and-Hyde story on an evolutionary scale, a mournful wildlife docudrama about the extinction of mankind's gentler cousin, the australopithecine. Driven from their lands and slaughtered by our aggressive ancestors, these ape-men are seen as the first victims of species-o-cide.

Directed and written by naturalists Carol and David Hughes, this primeval look at the last ape-guy is at once sobering, boring, simplistic and slow. It is, however, beautifully photographed, like a PBS "Nature" special starring ALF in heavy makeup. The purpose is lofty -- and through grunts and narration we learn that Noah was rare among men. The ark is sinking, the Hugheses contend, as was foreordained 1 million years ago with the ascent of nasty man.

Peter Elliott, the world's foremost "simian superstar," is the fuzzy, orangutan-colored hero, an endearing herbivore who is drinking at a watering hole when his clan is killed by Stone Age humans. When he returns, he finds his mate and child, his friends, all dead. Heartbroken, the poor fellow sets out to find others of his kind.

It's a hopeless safari because he is, the narrator tells us, the last ape-man on earth. As he walks across southwestern Africa to the sea, his plaintive calls are never answered. The animals are his only company. And like a prehistoric Dr. Doolittle, he rights overturned turtles, saves baby antelopes from hyenas, chuckles appreciatively at the antics of elephants and feeds big fat beetles to lizards. He's the monkey messiah.

If the Hugheses are right, the great chain of being has been broken forever. Bummer.

Missing Link is rated PG