ROSARIO Dawson does the best she can playing a nice girl who gets date-raped in the pretentious melodrama “Descent.”

Dawson, who is 10 years too old for the part, plays an innocent student who, after being attacked by a seemingly nice football player, quickly descends into a fallen-woman life of clubbing, drugs and wanton sex. So what’s the problem?

Great gobs of useless dialogue (“Funny how words create ideas”), look-at-me-I’m-a-filmmaker photography, pacing that has all the thrills of waiting in line at the post office and an utterly predictable plot combine to make the movie even worse than the hacky chick revenge fantasy now showing on channel 186 of your box.

DESCENT

Half a star

Running time: 105 minutes. Not rated (rape, profanity, sex, drug use, violence). At the Village East, Second Avenue and 12th Street.