``The Truth About Cats & Dogs'' is one of those warmhearted,quick-footed comedies that's light as a feather, fueled by coincidence, anddepends above all on the luminosity of its performers. Janeane Garofalo in thismovie, like Sandra Bullock in ``While You Were Sleeping,'' is so likable, sosympathetic, so revealing of her character's doubts and desires, that shecarries us headlong into the story. Garofalo plays Abby, a veterinarian who gives advice to pet owners overa talk radio station in Santa Monica, Calif. Her callers have the sorts ofproblems I suspect all pet owners secretly have. One is concerned about a cat,which won't stop licking its owner's face. Another has depressed fish. A thirdis trying to deal with a Great Dane on roller skates. The dog is a pretty goodskater, but it has understandably grown disturbed, and won't let anyone near it.

This last caller is Brian (Ben Chaplin), and as he talks we see hisGreat Dane whizzing past on skates. It's the kind of surrealistic image thatblindsides you; beyond language, beyond logic, it's intrinsically funny. As Abbydispenses advice about roller-skating dogs, Brian finds himself strangelyattracted to her voice--to its intelligence and tone, and to a quality thatcalls out to some need within him.

He asks Abby to meet him. ``Why,'' she asks, ``would I meet a listener Iknow nothing about except that he puts roller skates on his dog?'' But there issomething in his voice, maybe in his British accent, that appeals to a need inher, and God knows she's needy, since her social life is in disrepair. Sheagrees to meet him. He asks how he will recognize her. Abby is struck with anattack of insecurity; she doesn't think of herself as attractive, and so shedescribes a person who is her opposite: ``I'm tall, and blond...'' She knows such a person: Noelle (Uma Thurman), her neighbor, whoseromantic life is crumbling (Noelle has a bully for a boyfriend, who thinksnothing of breaking the bow of Abby's violin over his knee). When Brian callsfor her at the radio station, Abby in desperation begs Noelle to go out withhim--to pretend to be her. But poor Noelle is not very bright. At least not whenshe is with Brian, and pretending to be Abby. When Brian goes home and callsAbby on the phone, however, a miraculous transformation seems to take place;Abby becomes a delightful, seductive, witty conversationalist, and one night sheand Brian talk for hours, until dawn, gradually drawing a web of seduction andpassion around themselves.

This story is yet another retooling of the legend of Cyrano de Bergerac,the pudding-faced dreamer who loved the great beauty Roxanne, and wrote herinspired love letters while stage-managing a courtship by his handsome butdoltish friend Christian. The story of Cyrano was first told in the 17thcentury, and was made into an enduring play by Edmond Rostand in 1897. It hasbeen remade countless times; Jose Ferrer won an Oscar as Cyrano in 1950, SteveMartin updated the story in ``Roxanne'' (1987), and Gerard Depardieu got anOscar nomination for best actor for his version in 1990. Now here is JaneaneGarofalo in a gender switch for the story, which plays just as well, because whocannot identify with it? Who does not like to believe that true love existsbetween two hearts and minds, not between two faces, and that love can overleapsuch trifles as physical appearance? ``The Truth About Cats & Dogs'' is not simply another version of theold story, however. It includes a lot of humor that is generated by its specificsituation. Much of it does indeed have to do with cats and dogs (and with aconvincing demonstration of how to get a tortoise to stick its head out of itsshell). And then there is the matter of Noelle, the best friend. In UmaThurman's hands, she does not simply become a pawn, a false front for Abby.

There is a poignance in her situation, because she loves Brian, too, in her way,and handles a difficult situation with unexpected sweetness.

Of course all movies like this toy a little with the odds. The movie isbased upon the presumption that Garofalo is not pretty, and of course she is.

She has never been allowed to appear particularly appealing onscreen, however;after an apprenticeship on ``Saturday Night Live'' she broke onto the movies asthe Date From Hell in ``Bye Bye Love'' and Winona Ryder's best friend in``Reality Bites.'' In both roles she was blunt, abrasive and took nohostages--although she was more likable in the second. Here we see an entireother side to her personality; a smartness, a penetrating wit, that takes thisold story and adds a wry spin to its combination of romance, sweetness and hope.