To begin with the obvious: ``The Pallbearer'' is a goofier, gloomiertrek across some of the same ground covered in ``The Graduate,'' with DavidSchwimmer of TV's ``Friends'' in the Dustin Hoffman role. The filmmakers musthave subjected the 1967 classic to minute scrutiny. And yet the movie is notsimply a retread; it has its own originality and tone and a quirkier sense ofhumor, and the central role is ideal for Schwimmer's hangdog charm. He plays Tom Thompson, 25 years old and unemployed, who hopes to bean architect but goes into job interviews with a manner that shouts, ``I am notthe leading candidate for this job.'' He still lives at home with his mother(Carol Kane), is hopelessly inept with women, and has the fashion sense of aperson who, if blindfolded, would not be able to describe what he was wearing.

As the movie opens, he gets a strange telephone call from a Mrs.

Abernathy, who informs him that her son, Bill, is dead. He is not sure who BillAbernathy was, but since Mrs. Abernathy seems convinced that Tom was Bill's bestfriend, he makes plans to attend the funeral. That involves borrowing a suit.

Then Mrs. Abernathy (Barbara Hershey) calls at his home with a personal request:She wants him to deliver the eulogy. Tom is played by Schwimmer as a well-meaning pushover who will agreeto anything rather than say what he really thinks. He looks up Bill's picture inthe high school yearbook and discovers Bill was absent the day photos weretaken. Under his name are the unhelpful words, ``Chess Club.'' Tom's funeraloration is not a success: ``Who was... Bill Abernathy? What memories I have!Chess Club...'' Mrs. Abernathy is an attractive woman, bleached blond, grieving,needy, and although she is not impressed by the eulogy, she blames herself. Sheseeks out Tom for more talk about her son, and one misunderstanding leads toanother until they have become, amazingly, lovers. This is not what Tom had inmind, although he likes Mrs. Abernathy well enough. His heart is focused onJulie DeMarco (Gwyneth Paltrow), although with her, too, he seems ill-prepared.

At one point, revving up for a date, he tries to borrow a fresh shirt: ``I usedto be in love with her. I haven't seen her since high school. Imagine if shesees me in the same shirt.'' We now have all the elements in place for ``The Graduate's''triangle between the nerdish hero, the alluring older woman, and the sweetyounger one. And ``The Pallbearer'' has fun with some of the same kinds ofscenes, including a spectacularly awkward meeting with Julie's parents, who haveno idea who he is or why he has joined them for dinner. There are moments in ``The Pallbearer'' when the plot almost getsentangled in itself, but that's part of the fun; all the characters operateunder fundamental misinformation about one another. That leads to missedromantic signals, as when Tom tries to kiss Julie and ends up head-butting her.

(Later, when she decides she wants to kiss him, she issues a prudent warning:``I'm coming in.'') The structure of the screenplay, by Jason Katims anddirector Matt Reeves, is screwball comedy, but then they slow it down, add somesincere emotion, and filter it all through Schwimmer's awkward, inarticulatecharm. One of the influences of ``Pulp Fiction'' on other recent movies isthe notion that not every scene has to single-mindedly further the plot. Somescenes can exist simply for themselves (consider the date in ``Fargo'' betweenthe pregnant police chief and the old high school buddy). In ``The Pallbearer,''there are several scenes and even plot-threads like that, including thebackstage role of Tom's mother, who is played by Kane as superficially ditzy butfundamentally sound. At one point she enters Tom's room without knocking, andreceives his outraged complaint about privacy, etc., before quietly saying: ``Icame to see if you want some ice cream.'' ``A little,'' says Tom, instantlyforgiving. Barbara Hershey's role as Mrs. Abernathy is also written with somefreedom in it. At first she seems set up simply as a clone of Mrs. Robinson in``The Graduate,'' but her character takes some unmarked turns and ends up lesspredictable, and much nicer, than we expect. Tom, too, is not locked into onemode of behavior, and in a way the movie is about how he grows up and learns totake charge of himself. And Gwyneth Paltrow fools us about who Julie really is,and what she really wants.

There were times during ``The Pallbearer'' when I felt the plot wastoo clever for its own good, that twists were being added simply to frustrateus. But the director, Matt Reeves, has a master plan, and it's amazing how amovie with so many detours can arrive so convincingly at its destination.