MOVIE REVIEW : Tom Selleck and Company Could Use a Stronger ‘Alibi’

Mysteries are supposed to lull before they startle; it’s part of the plan. Certainly the credits of “Her Alibi” (citywide) lull us into thinking that, like them, the movie will be witty, sophisticated and elegant. It is certainly elegant looking , but 15 minutes into the action the thrill is gone and director Bruce Beresford seems to have no clue as to how to find it.

Those nifty credits are the jacket illustrations of prolific mystery writer Philip Blackwood (Tom Selleck), who has hit a writing block and can’t churn out any more steamy adventures for his hero, Peter Swift. In desperation, he hits a few real courtrooms, looking for inspiration. For a while it seems as though the film’s screenwriter, Charlie Peters, is on a charming tack, bringing on a quartet of old courtroom regulars who greet Selleck as one of them, cluing him in to the juicier cases in the building. However, the four remain underdeveloped, like so many other nice touches in the story.

The courtroom is just a ploy to let Selleck meet Nina Ionescu (Czech-born actress-model Paulina Porizkova), a “Romanian” mystery woman. Before you can say “jurisprudence” Selleck has lied gracefully, providing Porizkova with an alibi at her murder trial, and detective James Farentino has swallowed the obvious lie, allowing this ludicrous plot to inch its way forward. You’d expect more from students in Screenwriting 1A classes.

It’s all to get our two stars under one roof, Selleck’s country house, probably one of the most ruggedly seductive retreats around. It should be: The production designer is Henry Bumstead, who’s done everything from “Vertigo” to “To Kill a Mockingbird” and from “The Sting” to “The Little Drummer Girl.” But then producer Keith Barish has assembled a world-class technical slate: England’s great Freddie Francis (“The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” “Dune”) was the cinematographer; France’s Anne Goursaud (“One From the Heart,” “Ironweed”) was the editor; Wayne Fitzgerald designed the titles; the music is by Georges Delerue (“Jules and Jim,” “Silkwood”), and the splendid Ann Roth (“Klute,” “Day of the Locust,” “Working Girl”) did the costumes.

And all this loving talent is in the service of this loosely crocheted screenplay, studded with tired little ribaldries and action that finds shooting a man in the hip with an arrow hilarious. The waste is enough to make you keen piercingly in the aisles.

The film’s fun is supposed to come from the contrast between Selleck’s macho Peter Swift dialogue and his own klutzy behavior. He’s twitterpated by the very sight of Porizkova who may or may not be a real murderess. Do audiences really want to see Tom Selleck--the closest thing we have to Clark Gable--lurching about like Chevy Chase; hurled onto his car with his face smooshed up against the windshield and the wipers on? Nice that he can take himself so lightly; pity that he has to.

Porizkova, who was delicately ingenuous in “Anna,” gives exactly the same reading here. To many it may not even matter. She can also be found riding bareback, bounding on a trampoline or slipping into a bath towel--simply watching her in motion is a jaw-dropping sight. Her lifelong complicity with cameras has relaxed her utterly; put her in front of one and she moves her long, long legs and arms with a floppy doll languor that’s enchanting. But after quite a lot of this, even the most undemanding fan may want a bit more: a characterization perhaps.

It’s as useless to hope for as the possibility that director Beresford will rouse himself from his torpor and get this movie going somewhere. From the way characters pop onscreen unexpectedly, especially Selleck’s family and friends in the last third of the film, there’s a hint that crucial scenes may have vanished, but it takes a faith stronger than mine to think they would have helped much.

‘HER ALIBI’

A Warner Bros. release. Producer Keith Barish. Executive producer Martin Elfand. Director Bruce Beresford. Screenplay Charlie Peters. Camera Freddie Francis. Editor Anne Goursaud. Music Georges Delerue. Production design Henry Bumstead. Art direction Steve Walker, set decoration James W. Payne. Costumes Ann Roth. Sound Bruce Bisenz. Associate producer Daniel Franklin. With Tom Selleck, Paulina Porizkova, William Daniels, James Farentino, Hurd Hatfield, Patrick Wayne, Tess Harper.

Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG (parental guidance suggested).