WHAT'S HAPPENING : FILM.

Ivy League material: Terrific performances and an eagerness to please put ``Good Will Hunting's'' too-good-to-believe elements across winningly. The fact that it's a Cinderella story both on and off screen doesn't hurt, either.

Acting buddies Matt Damon (``The Rainmaker'') and Ben Affleck (``Chasing Amy'') wrote this tale about a working-class genius who's reluctant to exploit his prodigious mental gifts. The showcase piece actually got made, by no less a director than Gus Van Sant (``Drugstore Cowboy,'' ``To Die For''), with Damon playing the charming-but-troubled brainiac and Affleck as his construction-worker pal.

Robin Williams does good work as the psychologist struggling to direct Will toward a more fulfilling life. Minnie Driver is the Harvard student with the same goal but, obviously, a different approach. Acute insights into complicated relationships wrestle with feel-goody pop-psych pap throughout the movie, but the overall picture is one of compassion and respect.

?13- Bob Strauss

theater

Like never before: Pick your Peter Pan: Either a middle-aged woman singing ``I've Gotta Crow,'' or a cartoon hippie teen-ager in green tights.

OK, now block out those memories, and go check out ``Peter and Wendy'' at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood. Finally, it seems, the boy who never wanted to grow up has come of age.

Conceived by New York's avant-garde Mabou Mines company, this smashing version of J.M. Barrie's magical tale is a fine paradox: a show that speaks plainly to children but possesses the artistry and ingenuity of the most sophisticated off-Broadway offering.

Beautifully adapted by Liza Lorwin and kaleidoscopically directed by Lee Breuer, ``Peter and Wendy'' stars the astonishing Karen Kandel, who supplies the voice and emotions of virtually every character on stage, from Peter and Wendy Darling to Captain Hook and Nana the faithful watchdog. Yet Kandel is seldom alone during her 2-1/2-hour tour de force. She's assisted by a half-dozen linen-draped puppeteers who manipulate the oversized, elegantly stylized marionettes in the mythical dreamscape of Neverland.

Kandel also plays the grown-up Wendy, out of whose childhood memories the show springs magically to life. Augmented by Johnny Cunnighman's rousing Celtic score, rear-screen video projections and other mesmerizing pictorial effects, ``Peter and Wendy'' transports us to a place of pure, childlike belief.

The show runs through Dec. 28. Tickets are $17.50 to $37.50. Call [phone].

?13- Reed Johnson

art

Proof positive: It started 40 years ago in a small Long Island home. From those quiet beginnings, Universal Limited Art Editions has grown into one of the world's most energetic and innovative print workshops. Though in some ways books are becoming an endangered species, ULAE still is producing some of the most beautifully conceived and designed print and illustrated volumes in the country. Any short list of artists associated with ULAE would have to include Robert Motherwell, Jim Dine, Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, Larry Rivers, James Rosenquist and Kiki Smith.

All of them are represented in ``Proof Positive: Forty Years of Contemporary American Printmaking at ULAE, 1957-1997,'' an exhibition of approximately 150 prints, books, portfolios and three-dimensional objects showing at UCLA's Armand Hammer Museum through Jan. 4. The exhibition follows ULAE's metamorphosis from a modest lithography shop producing small, painterly black-and-white images (including several early pop art icons by the likes of Jasper Johns) into a cutting-edge facility capable of turning out huge, vibrantly colored art works.

Organized by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the show will subsequently travel to Tokyo and European venues to be announced. But for now you can view it 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays, until 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and until 9 p.m. Thursdays at 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Call [phone]; or TTY at (310) 443-709o4.

?13- Reed Johnson

music

Heartthrob brings amor: Alejandro Fernandez was almost born singing. When he was 4 years old, his father, the great ranchera singer Vicente Fernandez, was bringing him on stage to sing with him.

But the younger Fernandez wasn't sure he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps. At the time, few radio stations played traditional Mexican music, so Alejandro studied architecture.

It wasn't until Sony Latin produced a hit album in honor of Mexican music, including a father-and-son Fernandez duet, that the young singer decided to make crooning his career.

In 1991, Alejandro's self-titled debut album, full of traditional Mexican love songs, was released. The timing couldn't have been better; a generation was rediscovering the sounds of the past.

Alejandro Fernandez, who lives on a ranch in Guadalajara, appears tonight and Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre.

On his just-released sixth album, ``Me Estoy Enamorando'' (``I'm Falling in Love''), Fernandez combines bolero, traditional Mexican music and romantic balladry. The best-selling disc, which features a duet with Gloria Estefan, uses elements of mariachi to enhance the classic bolero flavor and calls upon the string section of the London Symphony.

The Universal Amphitheatre is at 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City. Show time is 8 p.m. and tickets are $51 and $53.50. Information: [phone].

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1) ``Peter and Wendy'' adapts the children's tale by J.M. Barrie into a storytelling kaleidoscope with puppets and the dynamic Karen Kandel at the Geffen Playhouse.

(2) Robert Rauschenberg's lithograph titled ``Tanya'' (1974) is part of ``Proof Positive: Forty Years of Contemporary American Printmaking at ULAE, 1957-1997,'' on view through Jan. 4 at UCLA's Armand Hammer Museum.

(3) A brilliant young man with a troubled past (and present, for that matter) presents a challenging case for Robin Williams' psychologist in ``Good Will Hunting.''

(4) oAlejandro Fernandez, who appears tonight and Saturday at the Universal Ampitheatre, sings a smooth blend of traditional Mexican music and romantic ballads.