Bobby Roth has made about 26 films, but during the past 15 years most of these have been telefilms. With "Jack the Dog," Roth makes a welcome return to indie features.

As with his best films, "The Boss' Son" (1978) and "Heartbreakers" (1984), "Jack the Dog" is a ritual of self-examination. Because he draws directly on his own life without the veneer of fiction, rawness sometimes creeps in. Add to this a protagonist that, by design, makes no attempt to gain audience sympathy -- as he acts like a cad for significant stretches of the film -- and you have a movie that should provoke a wide range of audience reactions.

Consequently, its theatrical life will probably be limited to specialty venues, but prospects brighten in cable and video for this self-financed film.

"Jack" is essentially about a man who, after chasing women most of his adult life, discovers true love with his son. The movie picks up Jack (Nestor Carbonell), a Los Angeles free-lance photographer, as a promiscuous bachelor grown tired of his womanizing. Abruptly, he marries Faith (Barbara Williams) in hopes that marriage will somehow settle him down.

After the birth of their son Sam (Andrew J. Ferchland) and several years of domesticity, the marriage founders, and Jack resumes his life as a rogue. The common denominator with Jack's women is that they are all slightly nuts and clearly lacking the stability he needs. But needs and wants are not the same thing, so Jack's frantic pursuit of love in all the wrong places becomes a risible slapstick of misguided desire.

Following their divorce, Jack's ex-wife marries a European (Juergen Prochnow) and moves to London. Jack wins custody of the boy, largely because Sam wants to remain in Los Angeles. Then, in "Kramer vs. Kramer" style, Jack must finally take his parenting seriously. To his credit, he does, and the story turns into a love affair between father and son.

Ferchland is most appealing as the son because he doesn't seem like a child actor. He is a complete natural. Roth also has helped him by writing the role with wit and keen insight.

The film's biggest problem lies with its lead. While Carbonell is good-looking and not without talent, he doesn't plumb the depths the part calls for. The soul-searching remains too close to the surface. Carbonell is much more at home in the comic scenes where he plays a man well aware of his imprudent sex drive but unable to control those urges.

Roth avoids the obvious and pat ending. Instead of Jack finding the woman of his dreams, Roth concludes his story, fittingly, with the father's discovery of the joys of fatherhood. By implication, Jack has achieved a wholeness that makes him ready for such an encounter.

Technical credits are solid on this low-budget effort, though the transfer from digital video to film is a little rough at times.