‘For Hire’s’ Cabby-Thriller Remains Stuck in First Gear

When Rob Lowe’s character announces early on in “For Hire” that “It never ceases to amaze me what people will do for money,” you just know he’s going to be made to eat those words.

Sure enough, this cabdriver--an average guy with average morals--is soon agreeing to kill a man for $50,000.

How he gets to that point--and back--is meant to be a thrill ride along the roller-coaster tracks of the human psyche. But in this Movie Channel original, which debuts tonight, it’s a mere spin at a kiddie carnival. Indeed, it’s so tepid that the usually terrific Joe Mantegna seems to be distancing himself from it by not bothering to even phone in his performance, delivering it instead by pony express.

Mantegna co-stars here as a famous author who befriends Lowe after becoming a regular in his cab, but there’s no forgetting that he headed David Mamet’s “House of Games,” a masterpiece of the form this movie is trying to emulate. It’s too bad that “For Hire” invites such comparisons--particularly to Alfred Hitchcock’s tales of ordinary people caught up in events beyond their control--because it fails by comparison. Its plot is too predictable, its psychology too cheesy.

None of this is to say that “For Hire”--directed by Jean Pellerin, screenplay by Karen Erbach and Leah M. Kerr--is a complete waste of time. The goateed and bleached-blond Lowe is amiable enough, and we truly believe him as a seemingly decent guy who strays from the path (maybe because we remember a certain sex video). If you’re not too demanding, you might even enjoy how the story unfolds.

But that’s damning with faint praise, indeed.

* “For Hire” premieres tonight at 9 on premium cable’s the Movie Channel. The network has rated it TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children under 14).