‘Clue’ Needs to Re-Examine Its Case

Here’s a clue for TV mystery writers everywhere: As you approach the plot’s big payoff, viewers’ enjoyment level tends to head south as the need for extended explanations goes up.

And when the quick-fix denouement involves invoking the dreaded “Swiss bank account” gambit, particularly in a movie aimed at the Disney Channel set, you can almost hear the air going out of the balloon.

Such is the plight of tonight’s “Get a Clue” (8 p.m.), a movie that displays style to spare bursting out of the starting gate only to stumble at the finish line, tripped up by the wild tangle of awkwardly knotted loose ends.

Lindsay Lohan (from 1998’s “The Parent Trap”) is perfectly charming as Lexy, the precocious 13-year-old daughter of a well-to-do Manhattan couple. She could be the younger sister of Alicia Silverstone’s bubbly style-slave character from the 1995 movie “Clueless,” only with an extra helping of brains and ambition.

Lexy aspires to follow in the footsteps of her father, a high-ranking reporter with the New York Times. And when a gossippy piece she has written about two of her teachers at the exclusive prep school she attends makes it into a small rival newspaper’s junior journalism section, it appears she’s on her way.

But when one of the teachers disappears the next day, the story gets murky, and Lexy and her school-paper friends set out to unravel the mystery.

Would parents really allow a 13-year-old to wander the streets and subways of New York City on such a quest? Well, Dad appears too busy to take much notice, and Mom is out of the picture after announcing that she’s leaving on a business trip in the opening scene.

Folks, get a clue.