Maudlin `Henry' Has Going For It. . . Harrison Ford

----------------------------------------------------------- XX "Regarding Henry," with Harrison Ford, Annette Bening. Directed by Mike Nichols, from a script by Jeffrey Abrams. Guild 45th, Alderwood, Crossroads, Factoria, Lewis & Clark, Oak Tree, Seatac North. "PG-13" - Parental guidance advised, due to language. ----------------------------------------------------------- Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) is an unscrupulous New York lawyer who gleefully gives the underdog the raw end of the deal - and makes of ton of money at it.

His marriage to Sarah (Annette Bening) is more stand-off than relationship. His work-related social life isn't much better. ("The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave," Sarah reminds him as they're going out for the evening.) As for his rapport with his 12-year-old daughter Rachel (Mikki Allen), it's icy-sour at best.

So what can you do about a guy like Henry?

Mike Nichols' new film has the answer: Shoot him in the head . . . it can only improve his personality.

Maudlin, schematic and surely scientifically unsound, "Regarding Henry" is a by-the-book tearjerker that has only one thing going for it: Ford's performance. But that's not enough to make up for Jeffrey Abrams' colorless script and Mike Nichols' uninspired direction.

Henry, going out for cigarettes one night, gets blown away by a mugger in a corner-store hold-up. Unable to speak, read, move, talk or remember anything, he's in for a long tough rehabilitation, according to his doctor.

Viewers will want to take this with a pinch of salt. In movie-time, Henry's recovery occupies a full 15 minutes. With the help of Bradley (Bill Nunn), his free-spirited African-American physical therapist, Henry is soon on his feet, holding stuttering conversations and painting pictures of Ritz Cracker boxes. After Henry returns home, his best pal Bruce (Bruce Altman) even arranges for him to go back to work, although it's unclear what he'll do there.

For Henry (this is where the fun kicks in) has reverted to a childlike innocence. He enjoys a fresh view of the world and, like one of the kids in Bil Keane's "Family Circus," can say the darndest things! Gazing up at the night sky from the terrace of his palatial Fifth Avenue apartment, he points out the "Big Dripper" and "Little Dripper." He also scrutinizes his old case files after he's learned to read again, and sees them in an entirely new light.

Ford's little-boy act is a treat, but it's virtually the only thing going on in the film. Bening reprises her martyred-wife role from "Guilty by Suspicion" - which was fine the first time around, but is bound to disappoint fans of "The Grifters." Let's not lose this marvelous screen villainess to a new career as a latter-day Donna Reed.

Allen, as young Rachel, enjoys a sweet screen rapport with Ford. All the other support characters are as lifeless as can be: a procession of evil, business-suited mannequins filing in and out of the frame.

The fabric of the film - HansZimmer's muted jazz score, Giuseppe Rotunno's competent cinematography - can't be faulted, but isn't exactly exciting.

The biggest mystery here is Abrams' script, which makes "Rain Man" and "Awakenings" look like masterpieces instead of cleverly crafted "issues" movies. What on earth did Nichols see in this material?

Most Nichols fans have lowered their expectations of him in recent years. He seems unlikely ever to return to the glories of his 1960s films, "The Graduate" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" But his last two movies - "Working Girl" and "Postcards from the Edge" - did at least have a feisty, madcap spunk to them.

"Regarding Henry," by comparison, is dully routine when it isn't being irritatingly cute. With its series of bland crises and its predictably tidy ending, it's designed to lull more than stimulate.

It's a feel-good movie about being shot in the brain; an exercise in hand-wringing and tearful smiles that's as flat and bogus as it is unlikely. Give it a few years, and it may work as kitsch.

But for now, as heartfelt serio-comedy, "Regarding Henry" is discouragingly disregardable.