Mission Impossible

Her Alibi

Written and Directed by Bruce Beresford

Warner Bros.' Pictures

At the USA Cheri

The mission: to write an original movie screenplay that will utilize the acting talents of Tom Selleck and Paulina Porizkova. Correction: make that mission "impossible." The problem is not that Selleck and Porizkova cannot act, although that probability remains high. The real problem with Her Alibi, which stars the two together for the first time, lies in the fact that both actors have been so exhaustively typecast that any screenplay written for the both of them would be an exercise in deja vu.

In the movie Her Alibi Selleck plays, to no surprise, a detective-novelist named Phillip Blackwood. Porizkova plays the Romanian beauty, Nina Ionescu, with whom Selleck falls in love. The twist to the plot comes when Nina is on trial for murder. Selleck, who is intrigued by her physical beauty, believes her to be innocent. He takes her under his wing by acting as her alibi; he uses her story to inspire the long overdue book that he is writing, and before you know it, voila, he falls in love with her.

It's not exactly what you'd call a sophisticated concept for a film. Yet, as a "made for television movie," the plot for Her Alibi might be almost palatable. Selleck is in top Magnum P.I. form here--he barely needs to change his act, and one cannot help thinking that that was the original intent of writer/director Bruce Beresford. The cynical and self-deprecating cracks are in full force, and there is even that familiar Selleck voiceover that distinguished the Magnum TV series.

To make Selleck feel even more at home, it seems Beresford has brought actors James Farentino, disinterred from his TV Dynasty days, and William Daniels, a casualty from the cancellation of the series St. Elsewhere to make guest appearances. Farentino, plays a pushy police lieutenant who does not believe in Nina's alibi, and though he gives a fair presentation of the script, his performance is uninspired. Daniels plays Selleck's whining publishing agent, but all he does is transfer his St. Elsewhere character to the screen. The cast is so familiar, in fact, that if you blink real fast you could almost swear you were sitting in front of your Zenith.

Porizkova occupies the same comfortable niche she always does, as well. Although she only makes one brief appearance in swim attire, the director clearly plays up her fame as a model in the film. When she sits down, she does not merely sit, as would most actresses; rather, she assumes a pose that allows the camera to take a slow-mo pan of her body for the audience's enjoyment.

Unfortunately for the actors, the script does not take any chances on the acting abilities of the cast. One predictable scene follows another. For example, in one scene Selleck takes Porizkova home with him but later wonders whether or not she is actually the murderer. Alone in his bedroom, he gets up to block the door with his dresser bureau. And then what? Well naturally, Porizkova walks in catching him in the act. What does Selleck reply? A better question is: what would Magnum reply? "Oh I was just exercising. Some people lift weights, I move furniture." Where is the laugh track when you most need it?

Not only is Beresford's script guilty of being mundane, it is also sloppy. In deference to U. S.-Soviet glasnost relations, the writers have deftly swayed away from any direct attacks on the Russian government. Porizkova's Nina does not come from the Soviet Union, but is rather supposed to be a native of Romania. But the temptation of using the KGB as an obvious foil to the good American guys seems to have been irresistible, and so we see it re-enacted again. Once more, in the spirit of James Bond and other spy thrillers, we see a plot that rests on the virtues of an East-West conflict.

Despite its failure on the big screen, Her Alibi, will undoubtedly fare much better in video heaven where, perhaps, it should have been released in the first place. Until then, the film will remain without an alibi.