For whatever reason, Robert Redford's directing talent seems to really kick into high artistic gear when he deals with a dysfunctional family. His Oscar-winning turn with "Ordinary People" 12 years ago displayed his remarkable sensitivity for such material, making the film an extraordinary success. That film achieved a universality that touched the moviegoing audience in a special way, and "A River Runs Through It" is destined to do the same.

The autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean has been a pet proj-ect of Redford's for some years, and his care for and empathy with the material show in his gentle, careful treatment of this story.

The focus is on two brothers who grow up in Montana after the turn of the century. Their stern father, a proud Scotsman and Presbyterian minister, tries to instill in them a reverence for God and nature, using his passion for fly fishing as a metaphor for life and its link to religious belief.

"In our family there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing," Maclean wrote — and his narrative prose is occasionally spoken on the soundtrack by no less than Redford himself, the voice of Norman as an older man reflecting on his youth.

The film begins with Norman and his younger brother Paul as children. As they grow up, Norman is shown to be inclined toward intellectual pursuits. The more stable of the two, he yearns to teach literature at the university level and leave Montana. Paul, meanwhile, becomes a rough-and-tumble local newspaperman — and his gambling and womanizing exploits quickly make him the black sheep of the family.

That never lessens the love between these family members, of course, and much of the film focuses on Norman's efforts to understand Paul as he attempts to derail the latter's self-destructive tendencies. The one peaceful place in their lives is the river, where fly fishing takes on larger meaning as it provides sanctuary.

Norman is played in the film by Craig Sheffer ("Split Decisions," "Nightbreed"), and Brad Pitt ("Thelma and Louise," "Cool World") is Paul. Both are excellent and perform with understated depth in their best film roles to date. Tom Skerritt, in a wonderfully subtle turn as the Reverend Maclean, is headed for supporting Oscar territory here. With this film and his new TV series "Picket Fences," he is clearly at the top of his form. The rest of the cast is also quite good (most notably Emily Lloyd as the object of Norman's affections and Brenda Blethyn as his mother).

But there's no question that "A River Runs Through It" is a director's film, and Redford's obvious dedication to the characters and story make for a film that is all too rare these days. (The excellent screenplay is by Richard Frieden-berg, best known for the TV movie "Promise.")

Heartfelt, sincere and enormously affecting, not to mention gorgeously photographed (and with a lovely musical score by Mark Isham), this is a movie that is not only highly entertaining but will remain etched in the memories of audience members for some time to come.

There's no question that "A River Runs Through It" is the one to beat come Oscar time.

The film is rated PG for some violence, profanity and brief nudity.