Her Alibi

Her Alibi

Her Alibi

Her Alibi

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.

Didn't expect that.. A nice, romantic and light-hearted comedy with Tom Selleck's funny and a little goofy sides and a breathtakingly beautiful and lovely Paulina Porizkova who played well and believably. All the supporting cast did a fine job too. Well done. That's not a film to be taken seriously. That's a movie to seat back, enjoy, relax, while at the same time drinking vine and crunching on dark chocolates.

Okay, I can admit that this was a fairly dumb movie, but that didn't stop me from enjoying myself. Tom Selleck was a good choice for this silly film, and Paulina Porizkova shows that she's more than just a pretty face. Sometimes it did get too stupid for my tastes, but it was still a good way to kill an hour-and-a-half. Yeah, it's not Shakespeare, but it's a lot more fun than Shakespeare.

Maybe Tom Selleck is so popular because he can be liked equally by the gals and the guys. Here he is Phil Blackwood, successful bachelor author of a whole series of mystery novels. But lately he is "stuck" and his agent is pressuring him into writing something good. He happens to be in court with friends one day when beautiful Paulina Porizkova as Nina from Romania is arraigned for murder. It seems that the dead guy had scissors stuck through his chest, into his heart, and she was the accused. Apparently unable to speak English, Nina's court-appointed lawyer asks for and gets a 24-hour continuance. Meanwhile, dresses as a priest, Phil gets into jail to visit her. In short, they agree on a plan, he will claim they are in a relationship and she was with him when the murder was committed. That becomes "Her Alibi." As part of their agreement, Nina goes with Phil, back to his secluded home in Connecticut. He doesn't quite know what to do with her, but is smitten. And, it turns out, she speaks English very well. But she remains mysterious, and won't tell Phil anything about her background or "who she is." Still, Phil uses his everyday experiences with her, including the court case, to write his fictional novel. Most of the movie involves their interactions and her dodging some mysterious Romanians seemingly out to get her. It is a romantic comedy, very enjoyable at barely 90 minutes. We found it very entertaining. A bonus was seeing Patrick Wayne as Phil's brother Gary Blackwood. As the movie was playing I didn't know whom he was, but remarked that he looked a lot like Jim Garner and I wondered if he was Garner's son. John Wayne's son instead! SPOILERS: Nina and her family were Romanian circus performers, planning to defect. The mysterious men were trying to prevent the defection, as it would be an embarrassment to their country.

Tom Selleck is the titular character, "her alibi," who provides a beautiful murder suspect with a false alibi because he believes she is innocent. However, once he brings her back to his house, he begins to believe perhaps he was wrong - and now she is trying to murder him so that he cannot go back on his word. Selleck's character also happens to be a mystery writer of cheap paperback books so he uses what's happening in his life as a parallel to his story, so at moments throughout the film we hear voice-overs of the story being narrated and it's played for comedy (example: Selleck makes a lot of noise while spying on the murder suspect, then in voice-over he reads a line from the book he's writing and says that the character in the book "quietly snuck up on the girl."). Not a great movie, but it will entertain you.

I actually look forward to watching this movie when it comes on cable. It's basically a cute little movie. I mainly like it for the cinematography, the set design, and the overall artistic direction. Tom Selleck is likable and very funny. He does a sort of charming goofiness in this film. There is an exact chemistry between Selleck and Porizkova (I personally got it). The cinematography is amazing in that the charm of the eighties is wonderfully captured in the display of the movie. The set design seems extravagant, but that's part of the pleasure of the movie. And the artistic direction is interesting because the lyricism expressed doesn't take itself too seriously. This film is a guilty pleasure.

Going into this film, I didn't think it was going to be all that funny. Was I wrong! This has a lot of laughs esp. the scenes with the bow and arrow and the dinner Nina cooks for Phil's family. If you feel like having a good laugh, then watch this. It won't be a waste of time.