AMIABLE 'DR. T' CARRIED BY GENIAL GERE, WOMEN.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

``Dr. T & the Women'' offers us one rarely seen delight: Richard Gere being likable. It also serves up a variety of actresses fussing their way, for the most part winningly, through a bandwidth of amusing caricatures.

The film is easygoing with a disturbing undercurrent, although some may find it more disturbing than intended simply because it plays with the timeless notion of man's inability to understand woman.

Although Gere's unadulterated, low-key charm makes it all quite palatable, if you think this subject should be addressed with the utmost sensitivity or not at all, you should probably stay away. Otherwise, there's a good, droll time to be had here.

Another thing: Although the film is about a gynecologist who looks like Richard Gere, ``Dr. T'' is no sex farce and only secondarily a romantic comedy.

Like many of Robert Altman's films, this one is concerned with the behavior and rituals of a particular group and region, in this case the moderately wealthy of Dallas, Texas. But it's more offhand than upfront about the sociological stuff than earlier Altmans (``Nashville,'' ``Short Cuts,'' even his Mississippi-based last film, ``Cookie's Fortune,'' which was also conceived and written by ``Dr. T's'' Anne Rapp).

Great attention has been paid to the hairdos and makeup strategies you'll find in central Texas, but don't expect Altman-esque takes on J.R. Ewing or Tom Landry, or what they represent.

Essentially, ``Dr. T'' is one big, bumptious allegory, the story of a man who thinks appreciating women and showing it is all a fella needs to do, and pays the price for his complacency.

Gere's Sullivan Travis is surrounded by females and likes it that way. His waiting room is constantly, often anarchically packed, his loyal nursing staff (headed by a Shelley Long who's funnier than she's been for years) is doting and resourceful, and his comfortable home is awash in blond beauty: wife Kate (Farrah Fawcett), adult daughters Dee Dee (``Almost Famous,'' Kate Hudson) and Connie (Tara Reid), and his recently divorced sister-in-law Peggy (Laura Dern) and her three little girls.

It's one definition of heaven on earth, and not a bad one. But then things get snaky. Kate loses her mind and rejects her husband's affections. Never having thought of another woman romantically for their entire marriage - occupational hazard or he's just wired that way, you be the judge - Sully's left adrift and helplessly floating toward the inviting, no- nonsense Bree (Helen Hunt), his country club's new golf pro.

Meanwhile, Dee Dee's impending marriage is unexpectedly threatened by the arrival of her ambiguous maid of honor (Liv Tyler). Overbearing Peggy takes over the house in her convalescing sister's absence, and she drinks a little too much to handle such responsibilities. Young Connie, who has a job at the Conspiracy Museum near the JFK assassination site, sets to bringing too much of her work too close to home.

And as more of Sully's precious time is taken up by personal crises, the ladies in the waiting room get increasingly impatient. Some brilliant, barely controlled group scenes - an Altman specialty - uncoil deliciously on that well-utilized set.

OK, Dr. T's women are, for the most part, drawn with (no pun intended) broad brushstrokes. Finding that offensive is acceptable, but it misses the larger point that, for all of his honest devotion to the feminine, this is the incomplete way in which Sully sees women. His attitudes and perceptions are the ones being challenged, exposed and virtually blown away by the end of the picture, while at least half of the women in his life find contentment in just being themselves.

Altman and Rapp have compared their movie to the biblical story of Job, whose faith the lord tested in the most alarming and harrowing ways. Sully's faith in his own faith in women is the test subject here, and while his upscale Texas lifestyle may insulate him from the full brunt of God's wrath, She still ain't letting him off easy.

``DR. T & THE WOMEN''

(Rated R: nudity, sex, language)

The stars: Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Robert Altman. Written by Anne Rapp. Produced by Altman and James McLindon. Released by Artisan Entertainment.

Running time: Two hours, two minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Three stars