TV REVIEW : ‘Curiosity’ an Uninvolving Mystery

The beautiful part about that oddity known as the “Movie of the Week” is that we can watch most of them idly while eating some fresh fruit and skimming one of those magazines that pile up on us.

A case in point is a little thriller titled “Curiosity Kills,” which airs tonight at 9 on the USA cable network.

It stars C. Thomas Howell as art photographer Cat Thomas and Rae Dawn Chong as sculptor Jane in neighboring lofts in an arts warehouse in downtown L.A.

Cat can’t quite understand why his buddy Harry, the kooky artist next door, kills himself. Wasn’t the type. And then Cat overhears a phone call to the new tenant, Manus, a handsome young actor, in which the caller boasts about how he got Manus this loft.

A little suspicion grows like Topsy into a big suspicion and before we know it, we realize that Manus is some sort of assassin. Could he be out to kill a protected witness? If Cat and Jane find out, will he kill them too? See Cat run.

We pretty well know the plot from the first plum to the last cherry in the bowl. We don’t know much about any of the people, even less about the most potentially interesting character, Manus, played with efficient deadliness by Jeff Fahey. The plot, while basically promising, has no ambition to go anywhere. It could’ve been a peach of a movie.