Arthur Miller's The Crucible is one of the most popular plays on the American stage.

Now, it has been adapted for the screen by the playwright and director Nicholas Hytner (The Madness of King George) and beautifully photographed on Hog Island, Mass.

Daniel Day-Lewis gives an outstanding, heartfelt performance as John Proctor, a farmer swept into the dangerous witch hunts by his brief dalliance with a near-mad village girl. Winona Ryder is even more impressive as Abigail Williams, the young woman who touches off the fatal frenzy over Satanism. Joan Allen as John's wife Elizabeth creates yet another exceptional rendition of a wounded woman.

The supporting cast -- Paul Scofield, Bruce Davison, and others -- are likewise superb.

So, why, I ask myself, does the movie seem so -- well, dull?

The story -- based on the true experience of Salem, Mass., when it was swept by witchcraft panic in 1692 -- is full of terror and betrayal, and of course, life-and-death choices between principles and safety.

It may be that the end of the Cold War -- and with it McCarthyite Commie-hunting -- has stripped the underlying meaning that made the play so bone-chilling in its early incarnations.

It may also be that we as an audience have grown out of the simplistic Freudian view of women so central to the play, in which the frigid Elizabeth doesn't stand a chance in a showdown with the sexually voracious Abigail.

Some of the difficulty may lie with the deeply reverential tone the filmmakers adopt toward their material, which renders action a mite stuffy and distant -- like a parable rather than a tale of human weakness.

Still, The Crucible is worthwhile, both for the ardor of its intellect and for the chance to savor the excellence of its fabulously talented cast.