"Hustle

LOS ANGELES, March 4 (Reuters) Authors, musicians and other artists who hit it big with their first work often find it impossible to match that success the second time round -- and film director Craig Brewer faces that challenge this week.

Brewer's new movie, ''Black Snake Moan,'' a drama starring Christina Ricci as a troubled young woman, debuted on Friday in theaters after his first film, 2005's art house hit ''Hustle&Flow,'' earned praise and awards, sold plenty of tickets and helped create a new star.

If ''Black Snake Moan'' comes close to that kind of success then Brewer, 35, will have risen to a challenge that bedevils artists whose first work proves so popular that the second cannot top it.

But increasing the risk of Brewer faltering is his new movie's departure in both style and story.

''I definitely knew 'Black Snake Moan' was going to be something different for a mass audience,'' he told Reuters in a recent interview. ''Where I think I changed is having to step up my visual game and having to think more classically.'' ''Hustle&Flow'' featured a modern-day story that stemmed from Brewer's own love of music, his dream to break into show business and his knowledge of life in his southern US hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

Terrence Howard played a pimp who hoped for rap singing stardom.

The character was both good and bad, which added to the movie's complexity.

The role earned Howard an Oscar nomination for acting and one of the film's songs, ''It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp,'' won an Academy Award. The movie raked in 23 million dollar at box offices -- a hit for a film costing about 3 million dollar to make.

While ''Black Snake Moan'' is set in current times, Brewer likens it to an old-fashioned western where the line between good and evil is clear. He said John Ford, director of classics like ''Rio Grande'' and ''Fort Apache,'' was ''a big influence.'' UNCHAIN MY HEART In ''Black Snake Moan,'' Ricci portrays a young woman named Rae with a well-earned reputation for drinking, pill-popping and sleeping around. Left beaten and nearly dead on a lonely country road, Rae is found by a farmer named Lazarus (Samuel L.

Jackson).

Lazarus, who is recently divorced, decides to redeem Rae no matter what happens. In one part of the movie, he chains her to an old heater for days to keep her from hurting herself.

''Black Snake Moan'' uses southern blues music to tell an age-old story of love and betrayal, and Lazarus relies on his Christian faith to help Rae heal. That makes ''Black Snake Moan'' rare in the independent film arena because it deals positively with Christianity.

''I hope that people do see the religious themes but don't necessarily make it specific,'' Brewer said. ''I think we may be losing the little bit of the safety that comes with community and family, and sometimes we find that in churches.'' Like ''Hustle&Flow,'' ''Black Snake Moan'' premiered at January's Sundance Film Festival, the top U.S. gathering for independent film. While indie movies are often edgy, ''Black Snake Moan'' offers audiences a fairly straightforward tale.

Early reviews were mixed.

Richard Roeper, film critic on widely watched television show Ebert&Roeper, called it ''so bizarre and so strange'' then gave ''kudos to everybody for going all the way.'' New York Times critic A.O. Scott wrote: ''For all its willful, shaking-and-shouting intensity, ''Black Snake Moan'' never lives up to its soundtrack.'' REUTERS SSC VC0900