IT'S BEEN a decade since actor-director Richard Ben- jamin had a hit people were talking about with "Mermaids."

Maybe that's why he turned to a sure thing of sorts, the Neil Simon comedy "The Goodbye Girl" with 2003-friendly actors Jeff Daniels and Patricia Heaton as leads.

The result of this remake, which debuts on TNT Friday, Jan. 16, with encores the two following nights, are mixed.

Yes, Simon's love story about a divorcee twice-dumped and an aspiring actor who sublets her apartment still works, though there are times when his witty dialogue seems a tad too glib and dated.

Just as Richard Dreyfuss stole the show from Marsha Mason in the original in 1977, Daniels is the more funny and sympathetic lead this time out.

That's partly because of the story: Heaton plays Paula, a 30-something dancer who gave up the chorus for an actor too sexy to ignore.

When Tony the actor bails out on her, and her daughter, Lucy (Pepsi-girl Hallie Kate Eisenberg), Heaton spends the first half of the film alternating between anger and hurt.

Enter Elliot (Daniels), an actor friend of Tony's who has sublet the apartment for three months while he's in an off-off Broadway production of "Richard III."

Daniels initially gets lost in the story's dated twist about him being into chanting, health food and walking about the house in the buff.

But, like the story's underlying threads of real love and trust, he grows on you.

That's partly because he's good at tossing off Simon's witty rejoinders, but also because he fulfills another requirement of the story by developing a meaningful relationship with Lucy.

Eisenberg is unarguably one of the cutest young actresses to come along in a while. Her huge success in Pepsi commercials makes that clear.

As an actress, she's still learning, and doesn't try to stretch beyond her capabilities here.

Sure, a scene where she's forced to cry comes up a little short. Even grown actors struggle with that one.

But she works well with both Heaton and Daniels, managing the rolled eyes and witty remarks the story throws her way several times per scene.