MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Entry’: To Protect and Disserve . . .

In “Fatal Attraction,” you couldn’t trust your most, shall we say, intimate friend. Then “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” insisted that your child’s beloved nanny was out to get you. Now “Unlawful Entry” hints that the protect-and-serve local policeman may not be the most trustworthy guy on the block. Does Hollywood have no shame? Do you even have to ask?

Welcome to the urban paranoia thriller, a new branch of a very old tree that will probably culminate in having a demented parish priest doing something unimaginable in the sanctity of the confession box. The more we fret about our unmanageable world, the more the movie business sees large dollar signs in underlining and emphasizing our worries.

Starring Ray Liotta, Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe and directed by the consistently undervalued Jonathan Kaplan, “Unlawful Entry” (citywide) is a cut above the average thriller. For one thing, it’s put together with enough professionalism to make you almost (but not quite) forget the implausibilities that films like this are inevitably prone to. And for another, its concern with cops getting out of line seems hardly far-fetched after what the world saw happening to Rodney G. King.

Michael Carr (Russell) and his wife, Karen (Stowe), are also L.A. residents but they live in a world that is a universe apart from Rodney King’s. Their Spanish-style house has a pool and lots of space, enough for Michael, a real estate developer of sorts, to have his own office where he works late putting together various entrepreneurial deals.

On one particular night, Michael is toiling away when Karen, watching TV upstairs, thinks she hears a noise. Michael grabs a golf club, jokes about coming back for a driver if things get serious, and suddenly freezes when an intruder bolts out of a closet, grabs both a monster kitchen knife and the negligee-clad Karen, and dares Michael to do something about it.

The only injury the Carrs end up suffering (it’s early in the film, after all) is a psychological one, but it is serious enough that when Officer Pete Davis (Liotta), one of the policemen investigating the crime, turns out to be a solicitous sort, the couple is more than grateful. He in turn is happy to be treated like a person, not a pariah with a gun, and a beautiful friendship seems to be in the offing.

Not quite. Michael gets to observe Officer Pete at work and, in an unintentional echo of the King incident, doesn’t like what he sees. And Officer Pete, like a bad penny, just won’t get lost. He is forever turning up uninvited in the Carrs’ vicinity, intent on protecting them as if they were Daryl Gates’ in-laws and spouting plausible explanations for whatever Michael is getting antsy about. Karen finds this rather charming, Michael finds Karen’s reaction not so charming, and things take a rapid turn for the worse.

From Jonathan Demme’s “Something Wild” through “GoodFellas” and even “Article 99,” Liotta has been one of those actors who never seems to place a foot wrong, and his performance in “Unlawful Entry” (rated R for terror, violence, sexuality, language) is critical to the film’s success. With intense eyes giving the lie to his vulnerable choirboy look, he is believable as both Mr. Sensitive and his darker alter ego, a man who makes you feel uneasy without allowing you to put your finger on why.

Neither Russell as the aggrieved Everyman nor Stowe as the vulnerable victim have parts nearly as interesting as Liotta’s, but they make the best they can of them. This is especially true of Stowe, previously seen in “Stakeout” and “Revenge,” who brings some emotional truth to a role that could have been little more than window dressing.

Helping out all the actors is veteran director Kaplan, best known for “The Accused,” but also responsible for such underappreciated films as “Heart Like a Wheel” and “Over the Edge.” His fluid, unforced style is happily free of irritating personal tics, and his avoidance of false moves behind the camera, his gentle but firm way of turning up the screws, encourages us to buy what is essentially a shamelessly contrived situation.

Finally, it is “Unlawful Entry’s” excess of implausibilities that keeps it from being better than it is. There are three writing credits (script by Lewis Colick, story by George D. Putnam & John Katchmer and Colick), each belonging to a veteran of episodic TV, and the resulting screenplay feels cobbled together and not particularly inspired.

With nowhere to go except where a considerable number of films have gone before it, “Unlawful Entry” has a tendency to lose believability as things move toward the finale. But if not the best of its breed, it does have enough going for it to give the top dogs a run for their money before unraveling at the finish line.

‘Unlawful Entry’

Kurt Russell: Michael Carr

Ray Liotta: Officer Pete Davis

Madeleine Stowe: Karen Carr

Roger E. Mosley: Officer Roy Cole

Ken Lerner: Roger Graham

A Largo Entertainment in association with JVC Entertainment presentation, released by 20th Century Fox. Director Jonathan Kaplan. Producer Charles Gordon. Screenplay Lewis Colick. Story George D. Putnam & John Katchmer and Lewis Colick. Cinematographer Jamie Anderson. Editor Curtiss Clayton. Costumes April Ferry. Music James Horner. Production design Lawrence G. Paull. Art director Bruce Crone. Set decorator Rick Simpson. Running time: 1 hour, 51 minutes.

MPAA-rated R (terror, violence, sexuality, language).

20th Century Fox