‘Jack the Bear’ (PG-13)

"Jack the Bear," a thoughtful but flawed tear-tugger from "thirtysomething's" Marshall Hercovitz, probes a widower's (Danny DeVito) struggle to be both mother and father to his two young sons. An intensely introspective drama about grieving and healing, it is Hercovitzian, yes, but not quite "daddysomething." For one thing, it's set in the twilight of the '60s, a decade blessedly free of whining yuppies.

There were other problems then, like lingering adolescence and bad hair, as exemplified in DeVito's John Leary. Formerly a kiddie-show host, John has adopted a more morbid persona since his wife's recent death. Now he presides over TV's graveyard shift as late-night creature-feature host Al Gorey. DeVito attacks his role with gloom and gusto, but it's not entirely his movie.

A melding of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and TV's "Wonder Years," the movie is seen through the wide, sad eyes of its narrator and title character, a 12-year-old nicknamed Jack the Bear by his late mother. It's got humor, pathos and the music of Percy Sledge. The enormously gifted newcomer Robert J. Steinmiller Jr. portrays the solemn Jack, who is haunted by memories of his mother (played in flashbacks by Andrea Marcovicci) and worried about his father's manic need to entertain him and his 3-year-old brother Dylan (articulate, adorable Miko Hughes).

Since moving from Syracuse, N.Y., to Oakland, John has been fighting to keep the id monsters at bay. But there are so many skulking in the corners of his heart and lurking under the children's bed. The movie is a veritable petting zoo of bogeymen -- from the vintage ghouls of John's TV show to the weirdo (Gary Sinise) in the spooky house next door. Even the neighborhood is dysfunctional, with its torn-up streets and Boo Radley houses.

Still nothing is quite as scary as John's spooky coiffure, which dredges up visions of Elliott Gould in "Getting Straight." To DeVito's great credit, we get past that unruly black thatch to the man underneath, an addled single parent consumed with guilt and grief over his wife's death.

After tucking in the kids these days, John retires to the kitchen with a bottle of vodka and a jar of olives. More and more, Jack is left to care for Dylan. Normally a diligent and loving brother, Jack briefly leaves the toddler in a playmate's care -- with consequences that are catastrophic, but that inevitably lead to John's reformation and the rediscovery of family togetherness.

Steven Zaillian of "Awakenings" wrote the screenplay, an uneven, almost episodic affair drawn from a novel by Dan McCall. The movie is vaguely ominous at first, as it seems that Zaillian is planning to wrap everything up in a bit of "Blue Velvet." But he never quite faces up to the consequences of the characters' actions.

Zaillian and Hercovitz are torn between conventional Hollywood outcomes and terrible tragedy of the sort explored in the French child-napping movie, "Olivier Olivier." So "Jack the Bear" is not sure whether it wants to bearhug or bear arms.

"Jack the Bear" is rated PG-13 for violence and adult themes.