Among this movie's multiple personalities are a morosely nostalgic one (brooding over reactions to President Kennedy's assassination), an anticone (Cher romping with Ryder and Christina Ricci, as her two daughters),a sloppy soap opera one (Ryder's unconvincingly sudden determination tolose her virginity and a too-coincidental crisis involving Ricci) and asly, warm one (Bob Hoskins, as Cher's beau, cooking for her childrenbecause she makes only finger foods -- three meals a day).

Some of this is entertaining, some of it foolish, and most of it is tooeccentric to make much of an impact of any kind.

Directed by Richard (My Stepmother Is an Alien) Benjamin, who took itover partway from Frank Oz, it is set in 1963 and makes a big issue ofthe era, yet the film is riddled with anachronisms. Hoskins complains atone point, for instance, about how AstroTurf is ruining baseball, whenAstroTurf wasn't even introduced into the major leagues until 1966.Eighties expressions like "Lighten up!" keep popping up, and people talkabout Superman and Lois Lane kissing.

None of this ought to devastate anyone's day, of course, but suchjarring annoyances throw the film off its rhythm, which is herky-jerkyenough.

Ryder is quirkily appealing as a wildly maladjusted teenager (now, thisis a kid who would have been a match for Edward Scissorhand s) whosehobby is being embarrassed about her good-hearted mother's vaguelyslutty and egregiously male-dependent behavior. Ricci is quietlylikable as the sweet younger daughter whose talent for swimming accounts for only part of the title -- Cher's mermaid New Year's Eve costume getsin there too.

Cher herself is offhandedly sarcastic. It seems like a routine performance for her, a throwback to her old TV show personal, especially against Hoskins, who is winningly earnest.

The script by June (Experience Preferred . . . but Not Essential)Roberts from Patty Dann's novel has its best moments in Ryder'sstream-of-consciousness voice-overs -- at one point she wonders whethernuns have pure thoughts "every second of the day" -- but it's too often on the glib side. When a boyfriend tells Cher he's going on vacation without her, she says, "Not only are you not taking me on this trip,you're taking another woman!" He answers, "She's not just another woman.She's my wife!"

Then there's Hoskins telling Cher, "Time catches up. What can you do?"When she replies, "Keep moving," it's to groan for.

The saving grace is that the way the movie keeps lunging back and forth,you know that any bad moment isn't likely to last too long.