Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson: Real Life--Cute; The Dying Gaul--Not Cute (Photos: STV)

An eerie trend is developing. You may have witnessed it yourself. For now, let's call it the "Mid-Lifetime Achievement Award" phenomenon--in which respected film organizations honor accomplished actors or filmmakers for little more than being in the prime of their careers. Take 28-year old Samantha Morton for example, who along with Nicolas Cage received this year's Half-Life Award at CineVegas. Or Marc Forster, 36, who attended a career retrospective hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in April.

And then Tuesday night, Lincoln Center's Young Friends of Film honored Campbell Scott, who at age 43 is hardly winding down his career. To the contrary, his finely tuned performance in Craig Lucas' The Dying Gaul wowed the audience in the Walter Reade Theater. He commented on looking forward to his next directing project and staying close to New York. Life is good, so on and so forth.

So how does Scott feel about the idea of his very own "Mid-Lifetime Achievement Award"?

"You mean, that maybe it's all over?" he replied.

Exactly.

He hedged, smiled. "I don't know if I'm supposed to feel comfortable with that sort of thing, but I'll take it," he told The Reeler. "Along with the screening of the film. That makes me feel a little better."

Scott spent a lot of time Tuesday with his tongue in cheek--not an uncommon reaction for a "Mid-Lifetime" honoree, one might expect. At any rate, he joined Lucas and co-stars Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard for The Dying Gaul's New York premiere, which left most attendees gasping with acclaim even as they reached for drinks to help alleviate some of their post-screening despondency. Scott portrays Jeffrey, a closeted Hollywood producer who seduces Robert (Sarsgaard), a screenwriter to whom Jeffrey has paid $1 million for his latest script. The catch: Robert must "commercialize" the script by replacing the story's central homosexual relationship with a heterosexual one.

Jeffrey's and Robert's trysts intensify even as Robert settles into a close friendship with Jeffrey's wife Elaine (Clarkson). When Elaine discovers their affair, however, she launches a perverse cycle of emotional blackmail against Robert. Adapted from Lucas' play, the story defies easy categorization or capsulization; Scott first referred to it as a "relationship thriller," then acknowledged its darkness by confessing it is "not a cocktail movie." At any rate, marriage, gay self-loathing and the Hollywood system all get their time to burn under Lucas' magnifying glass, and far be it from The Reeler to spoil your fun by giving too much away.

And even while Lucas demands maybe a little too much surrender to its plot contrivances (the Internet chat room as expository device is not as imaginative as he seems to think, no matter how stunning his sequences look), his direction matches his peerless writing step for step. The three leads share fabulous instincts for understatement, burrowing into their characters' pasts for a sense of restrained anger that can only grow out of regrets. Robert's dead lover haunts him as Jeffrey's own repression threatens him, while Elaine wields an authority over both reclaimed from the scrap of her own abandoned screenwriting career. Sarsgaard's wounded Robert is easily the actor's most accomplished, fearless performance to date, while Scott--the guest of honor, remember--simmers in a role a lesser actor would have debased with melodrama.

"Campbell is an actor's actor's actor." Or so says Craig Lucas, who introduced the guest of honor with Peter Sarsgaard

But Clarkson. Whoa. The film's alternating source of grace, vulnerability and painstaking treachery. Why haven't we seen her like this before?

"I'd love to say I did all this practice and preparation, but the part was just so well-written," Clarkson told me after the screening. "Craig Lucas is a masterful writer, and I'm working alongside Campbell, whom I obviously know very well. You know, and with Peter, I mean? something took over the three of us as we shot this film. The very dark places and the very Machiavellian twists and turns that we have to take?in my mind?are justified."

Although it could be argued Clarkson stole the show, it was still pretty much Scott's night. Lucas praised his friend in his introduction, reflecting on Scott's breakthrough role in 1987's Longtime Companion.

"Everything I know about directing I learned from (Companion director) Norman Rene, and everything I learned about acting I learned from Campbell," Lucas said. "And let me tell you that nobody wanted to be in Longtime Companion. NOBODY. But Campbell wanted to do it. His agent said, 'Don't do it. You don't want to be a fag in a movie. You don't want to start your career like that.' ? Later on, the mantra in the cutting room was, 'Cut to Campbell.' Everything is in the eyes. You can see every thought."

Sarsgaard agreed. "Generally, I would say Campbell's acting is more cow, less moo," he told the audience. "I think about the way he has created his own opportunities as an actor. You know, a lot of us bitch and moan about the state of Hollywood, but Campbell stopped bitching and moaning and created his own opportunities. And as a young actor, I really take it to heart."

Alec Baldwin pries the secrets of Mid-Lifetime Achievement Award worthiness from Campbell Scott (Hint: play more gay people)

Among Scott's other colleagues who dropped by for the festivities were Mary-Louise Parker and Alec Baldwin, the latter of whom stuck around just long enough to qualify for a hug, a photo op and a gift bag. Critics Rex Reed and Stephen Holden were on hand to get a first look at the film; Reed fled before I could get his impressions, while Holden said he was inclined to overlook its strained plausibility in favor of its actors' brilliance. "Have you seen Scott's Hamlet?" he asked me, referring to the actor's television adaptation from 2000. "He's terrific. It's really one of the best."

So with a brilliant Hamlet behind him and his rank in the burgeoning "Mid-Lifetime Achievement Award" canon confirmed, where does a guy like Campbell Scott go from here?

"I'm hoping to do some more directing, actually," he said. Can he talk about the status of his next project? "Not unless you have $4 million."

Believe me, Campbell, I am working on it. Meanwhile, try and enjoy your night, OK?