A LITTLE BIT OF `MOTHER' IN US ALL : THE FACTS.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Staff Writer

Oh, mother. Could there be a more universal subject? Writer- director Albert Brooks maintains that there are two kinds of mothers in the world - the kind who think their children can do no wrong and the other kind. This movie, he says, is about the other kind.

Brooks and actress Debbie Reynolds - who both claim to have the other kind in real life - use ``Mother'' to give us a hilariously eccentric, but three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood portrait of a woman whom the less coddled sector of the world's population will recognize in an instant.

Reynolds plays the widowed, 60-ish Beatrice Henderson, who means well but whose soothing ``dear'' really means ``oh dear'' when she refers to her older son John, a Los Angeles novelist played by Brooks. Her every coded inquiry is a tactful attempt to suggest how he might do better when, to her mind, he isn't doing so well.

It's a torment to the oversensitive John, who's going through his second divorce and has decided that somehow, the root of his problems with women must lie with his mother.

What to do? He moves back in with her, upending her settled life and arousing the jealousy of his younger sibling Jeff, an apparently more successful and well-adjusted advertising executive (terrifically played by Rob Morrow), who nonetheless phones his mom on a daily basis.

Beatrice, who uses a hazy, dazy air of ineptness to keep annoying problems like her son at a distance, can't quite figure out what he's doing in her home.

``Until I figure this situation out, I'll never figure that situation out,'' insists John, who has realized he has a pattern of getting involved with women who are critical of him.

Brooks, a gifted social satirist, has lampooned self-indulgent baby boomers before in movies like ``Lost in America.'' Here, he fingers the pulse of his generation once again when he reoccupies his old bedroom, puts his Jimi Hendrix, ``Barbarella'' and ``2001'' posters back on the wall, and spends his days jumping around his room while the boombox plays ``Long Tall Sally.''

Brooks starts out the movie as a divorced Everyman doing the comedy of minutiae - sort of a Seinfeld'' routine without the rest of the gang - and for a while the movie struggles to find its legs. But when Brooks and Reynolds start playing their scenes together, something magic happens and the comedy flows.

Reynolds, in her first leading film role since 1971, is marvelous - warm, soothing, and full of irony and guile. She and Brooks make a perfectly matched set of well-meaning neurotics, and their attempts to cope with and understand each other result in a hilarious and engaging ebb and flow of insight and advancement - one of the better, more authentic relationship stories of the year.

Brooks' perfectly pitched comic direction and the witty, surprising script give Reynolds an ideal showcase in a memorable screen comeback, and she makes the most of it. Not only the characters, but the audience, could wind up more enlightened from this experience.

The film: ``Mother'' (PG-13; adult references).

The stars: Albert Brooks, Debbie Reynolds, Rob Morrow.

Behind the scenes: Written by Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson. Produced by Scott Rudin and Herb Nanas. Released by Paramount Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 44 minutes.

Playing: Selected theaters.

Our rating: four stars.

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Photo: Albert Brooks portrays a man going through his second divorce who moves in with his widowed mom, played by Debbie Reynolds, in ``Mother.''