On The Road

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

COUPE DE VILLE

Directed by Joe Roth

Screenplay by Mike Binder

Sibling rivalry, as everyone knows, is a whiny bore. Only brave souls would dare contemplate it as a movie subject. Only clever (and compassionate) ones could bring it off as well as have screenwriter Mike Binder, adapting a tale out of his own family's mythology, and director Joe Roth, keeping the retelling simple but not too sweet. True to its original material, Coupe de Ville retains the air of a beloved anecdote polished by many spinnings around a family table.

As of 1963, the three Libner lads have not spoken for what they indifferently estimate as three to five years, all being sure they have nothing but genes in common. The eldest, Marvin (Daniel Stern), is an officious straight arrow. The youngest, Bobby (Patrick Dempsey), is a juvenile delinquent manque. The middle brother, Buddy (Arye Gross), naturally keeps trying to mediate fraternal fractiousness. None can imagine why their father Fred (Alan Arkin) insists that they all are needed to perform a single task: pick up a perfectly preserved 1954 Cadillac convertible in Detroit and deliver it (despite speed traps, accidents and fights for control of its radio dial) to him in Florida unscathed and on time for their mother's birthday. But Fred unconsciously knows what movie storytellers have always known: if you force a disparate group of males together for a journey, they will, as they surmount its obstacles, achieve what Fred's sons lack -- true brotherhood. R.S.