‘Her Alibi’ By Rita Kempley Washington Post Staff Writer February 03, 1989

Director: Bruce Beresford Cast: Tom Selleck; Paulina Porizkova; William Daniels; Tess Harper; Patrick Wayne; Hurd Hatfield Parental guidance suggested Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

In the style of a cheap detective novel, this bumpy romantic burlesque chronicles Phillip's transformation from blocked writer to confident hack. Smutty and dumb and sluggish as it is, Selleck is so gosh darn ingratiating you can have fun with his boyish act. He's the "Wonder Years" kid with chest hair.

With his teddy bear appeal, it's not surprising that there was more magnetism between Selleck and the Baby in "Three Men" than there is between Selleck and grown-up babe Paulina Porizkova (though the two femmes fatales are similarly gifted). And it doesn't help that this high-paid clotheshorse is a chilly beauty whose presence is as spare as her figure. It's hard for Selleck to look deeply into those far-focused mannequin eyes.

Porizkova portrays Nina Ionescu, a Romanian murder suspect who inspires the plot of Phillip's past-due novel. The author of three runaway best sellers hasn't been productive since his wife ran off with a literary critic (a hommage, no doubt, to "Throw Momma From the Train"). Egged on by his pesky editor Sam Dusen (William Daniels), Phillip goes off to the courthouse in hopes of jump-starting his imagination -- not that he is known for the cunning of his plots or the invention of his prose.

In fact, what readers love most about his work is its predictability -- the hard-boiled hyperbole, the thrown-back bourbons, the breasts like pomegranates, the smoldering passion, the smoking gun. "The cop turned and left. His remarks hung in the air like a bad smell," writes Phillip, a Walter Mitty of shamus cliche'.

Luckily the new novel practically writes itself once Phillip decides to provide an alibi for the mysterious, knife-wielding Nina. He engineers her release by telling the police that they are lovers, insisting that Nina move into his posh Connecticut estate. The enigmatic communist is wowed by the capitalist's lifestyle (an un-glasnost sentiment prevails). All the while Romanian goons lurk in the shadows, persuading us that she is not a murderess, but a defecting spy.

Phillip gradually falls in love with her but can't believe in her. His conflict is compounded when detective Frank Polito (James Farentino) warns, "If you die before you rescind your alibi, it guarantees her innocence." After that, the scaredy-pants sleeps with a walnut wardrobe against his bedroom door. His blood beats against his temples like a bass drum when Nina insists on giving him a haircut. Scissors in hand, she presses against his mighty thighs, thereby arousing more than his suspicions.

Screenwriter Charlie Peters is the predictable piggy whose arrested pubescence informs "Her Alibi." When it comes to imagination, he has much in common with his hero. Unaccountably, Australian great Bruce Beresford, who directed "Breaker Morant" and "Tender Mercies," took on this project. Maybe he mistook it for comedy noir -- The Big Nap.

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