A Disappointing Continuation

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Phil Blackwood (Tom Selleck) is a successful crime mystery writer of Peter Swift novels but he's been blocked for four years. Her publisher Sam (William Daniels) suggests getting a woman. He hangs out at court with the regulars. One day, he comes across Romanian Nina Lonescu (Paulina Porizkova) accused of a stabbing murder. He pretends to be a priest to interview her and offers to be her alibi. The government reluctantly releases her. With agents from the communist Romanian government after her, she decides to stay with Phil in his country home.First, Phil is an idiot. He's the most naive crime writer in the world. Other than being beautiful, he has no reason to assume her innocence. In fact, she doesn't even exert her innocence before he volunteers to be her alibi. The whole premise falls apart right from the start. The rest of the movie struggles to create humor. Tom Selleck is capable but Porizkova is only a model. She has the beauty and the poise. She doesn't have the skills to play in a comedy. She could be a functional actor in something less demanding. This movie is bad right from the start.

Always likable Tom Selleck is well cast as a mediocre mystery writer (VERY mediocre, based on the samples of his writing we get in the voice-over narrations, which are one of the funniest parts of the movie). He's looking for a plot for his next book and finding it in the person of a beautiful Romanian college student (Paulina Porizkova) who seems to be hiding some big secret. The movie plays like the plot of a bad detective book, with perceptions of the female character shifting from dangerous to trustworthy to suspicious and back. The chemistry between the characters works very well romantically as both characters begin to fall in love despite being wary and suspicious of the various goings-on, and the Romanian KGB agents on Paulina's trail make for useful comic villains.

Tom Selleck stars as a detective novelist with writers block in this cute little movie that introduces supermodel Paulina Porizkova to the acting world. She does a fine job as a Russian immigrant accused of murder (of course she didn't do it) and Selleck offers to be her alibi.On a scale of one to ten..6

There are two good things about this movie: Paulina and her deep-voiced accent, and the opening credits. This is a case where an interesting story was overshadowed by the marketing plan. Why flesh out a story when Paulina's flesh can substitute?But, something I hate to admit, I had a good time watching this movie just for the novelty of watching a gorgeous supermodel say things like "globes of flesh". A guilty pleasure, I suppose.