`SMOKE SIGNALS' LIGHTHEARTED, LOOK AT LIFE ON THE RESERVATION.

Byline: Janet Maslin The New York Times

Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) are Coeur d'Alene Indians living in Idaho, characters drawn by Sherman Alexie from his sharply etched, mordant book of stories, ``The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.'' Lighter and less bittersweet on screen, and adapted by Alexie into a splendid screenplay, these tales describe a contemporary American Indian culture coming to terms with its past in offbeat, unexpected ways. These range from casual asides about George Armstrong Custer to the patter of the reservation's radio station, where ``It's a good day to be indigenous!'' is a way to greet the morning.

Thomas and Victor are opposites, their fates linked by a calamity from the cradle. Thomas was an infant when his parents, who had been drinking heavily, were killed in a fire; it was Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), Victor's father, who saved him. The boys have been rivals and opposites ever since. Victor is the bigger and sterner of the two, with Thomas as his screwball sidekick. It is Victor, for instance, who accuses Thomas of having gotten his ideas of Indian behavior from too many viewings of ``Dances With Wolves'' and advises him to quit grinning, start scowling and toughen up.

As played by Beach and Adams, these two become enormously likable characters during the easygoing course of the story.

Here is a first feature from Chris Eyre, a 28-year-old Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker, that has an American Indian cast and outlook. And it needs no dispensation for novelty: It stands beautifully on its own merits. Eyre presents an inviting, affectionate and witty look at contemporary American Indian lives.

``Smoke Signals'' stays home at first, describing such reservation fixtures as the radio traffic scout who sits parked in the middle of nowhere, filing bulletins. (``Ain't no traffic, really.'' ``Big truck just went by. Now it's gone.'') Then it moves on to the more serious business of Arnold Joseph's fate. As is gradually revealed, Arnold left years earlier to start a new life near Phoenix, damaging both boys and his battle-scarred wife, Arlene (Tantoo Cardinal) in the process. With her son, Arlene refers to this as ``your daddy's magic act: He sawed us all into pieces, didn't he?''

As childhood flashbacks reveal the boozy outbursts that colored Arnold's life with his family, his loved ones learn that he recently died far from home. So Thomas and Victor, calling a temporary truce to their own jokey rivalry, go off in search of him. ``You're leaving the rez and going into a whole different country, Cousin,'' one young Indian woman teases. But aren't they traveling in the United States? ``Damn right it is!'' adds her girlfriend. ``That's as foreign as it gets.''

We see what that means as soon as Thomas and Victor board a bus, but culture clash is not the film's main concern. Instead, it lets the two travelers reinvent their friendship in light of a new understanding of what Arnold meant to each as a father, and they discover (through Arnold's loyal latter-day companion, played by Irene Bedard) how Arnold himself struggled with the weight of the past. The film's serious underpinnings are not obscured by charming, mostly lighthearted performances or by frequent flashes of Alexie's wry humor. It's as natural as anything else, for example, for Thomas and Victor to make up a little song about John Wayne's teeth.

Though this is very much a first feature, ``Smoke Signals'' shows colorful style and a wisdom beyond precocity about its setting and its people.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Smoke Signals.''

The stars: Adam Beach, Evan Adams.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Chris Eyre. Screenplay by Sherman Alexie. Released by Miramax Films.

Running time: One hour, 29 minutes.

Playing: Selected theaters.

Our rating: Three Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Victor (Adam Beach, left) and Thomas (Evan Adams) leave the reservation to search for their father in ``Smoke Signals.''