QUAID A FINE `COMPANY' MAN.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

DENNIS QUAID has played his fair share of heroes lately - Sam Houston in ``The Alamo,'' the late-in-the-game baseball pitcher in ``The Rookie'' - but those guys have nothing on Dan Foreman, the decent, honest, loving family man in Paul Weitz's sublime, sentimental comedy ``In Good Company.''

Dan is 51, married to a cool gal (Marg Helgenberger), father to two teenage daughters and is doing just fine, thank you, with his job as head of ad sales for a Sports Illustrated-style, New York-based magazine. He's got a house in the suburbs, a clear conscience and a comfort in his own skin. ``You really believe in this stuff,'' someone tells him. ``Of course I do. Why else would I do it?''

But it doesn't take long for Dan's world to unravel. Dan's magazine is taken over by a multinational conglomerate and Dan is consigned to being a ``wingman'' for 26-year-old Carter Duryea, an over-caffeinated, anal-retentive go-getter who knows nothing about ad sales. Adding to Dan's stress: His oldest daughter, Alex (Scarlett Johansson), has just been accepted to NYU (the tuition!) and he has found a discarded container for a home pregnancy test in his trash. (Wasn't it only yesterday his girls were sitting on Santa's lap?!?)

``In Good Company'' marks the first time Weitz has worked apart from his brother, Chris (who's on board here as producer), but the film has the same sharply observed humanity and effortless mix of satire and tenderness that marked the marvelous ``About a Boy.'' Weitz owes an acknowledged debt here to Billy Wilder, a master of genre-proof filmmaking, and particularly Wilder's ``The Apartment'' in its look at the modern working man's daily balancing routine.

The cast is uniformly good, with Quaid and Grace reveling in the well- realized dynamic between old-school Dan and the hyper Carter, whose wild careerism cannot mask an emotional neediness born from a complete absence of family and friends. (The resourceful Grace could have made ``Surviving Christmas'' something less of a disaster had he been cast in the Ben Affleck role.) Johansson hits all the right notes as a young woman looking to find herself and redefine her relationship with her father, whom she deeply loves.

The film, though, belongs to Quaid, masterful in his comic timing, reaction shots and scenes of physical comedy. It's one of the year's great acting turns, though it will of course be obscured by showier performances. Playing a man ``cursed with a functional family'' may not win Quaid any awards, but it should bring him the admiration of moviegoers looking for a winning portrait of a good guy worth their admiration.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

IN GOOD COMPANY - Three and one half stars

(PG-13: some sexual content, drug references)

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson.

Director: Paul Weitz.

Running time: 1 hr. 14 min.

Playing: Opening Wednesday at AMC Century City 14 for Oscar qualifying run. Expands wide Jan. 14.

In a nutshell: Dennis Quaid masterfully plays an everyday hero in this sublime, sentimental comedy.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) In the `COMPANY' of more holiday movies

(2) Advertising executive Dennis Quaid, left, finds himself playing ``wingman'' to newbie Topher Grace in ``In Good Company.''