Three Wishes

Here's an attempt to mix several genres, a sentimental fantasy-comedy-drama called "Three Wishes," which plays like an episode of the Saturday night television series "Touched By an Angel" crossed with that "It's a Wonderful Life," though the title implies "Aladdin and His Magic Lamp."

The bulk of the film takes place in a small white-bread suburban California community in 1955, with the story of a hitchhiking drifter (Patrick Swayze), who is struck by a car driven by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

She has just lost her husband in the Korean War and is dealing with her own grief and the grief of her two young sons. After the accident, Mastrantonio defies convention and takes Swayze into her home as a boarder — just until his broken leg heals.

Eventually, Swayze and his magical mutt companion have a healing effect on Mastrantonio and her two young sons (Joseph Mazzello, Seth Mumy) as the sentiment just gets thicker and thicker.

That "eventually," by the way, is awfully slow in coming. Despite the TV ads for this film, which show off the special effects, the first hour gives no clue as to the "magic" that is to come.

For most of the movie, Swayze seems be simply an anti-social rebel whose inherent gentility will help the family get over the tragedy it has suffered. And as if his presence in Mastrantonio's home isn't enough to start local gossip, he also sunbathes nude in her back yard and takes the local Little League team under his wing with some sort of Zen baseball training.

So, when the "magic" finally starts up in the film's final reels, it seems wildly out of sync with all that has gone before. And when Swayze and his dog are revealed to be . . . well, whatever they are — genies, angels? — you may wonder where that all came from. (And is it really necessary in this "family film" to have Swayze and Mas-tran-tonio go to bed together?)

Of the performers, Mastrantonio really shines as this troubled '50s mother, and Swayze is appropriately dour most of the way. (The kids are also good.)

But director Martha Coolidge has trouble deciding where to place her camera's loyalties. Though much of the film appears to be about the two boys — especially when the younger contracts a deadly illness — the focus seems to be on the adults. (Contractual obligations to Swayze and Mas-tran-tonio, perhaps?)

As a result, the film is soft and uneven, despite a few inspiring moments and the noblest of intentions.

"Three Wishes" is rated PG for violence, profanity, nudity and implied sex.