Implicated Reviews

If a bunch of Valley Girls took "Intro to Film Noir," their final movie project might resemble this exceedingly dull kidnapping thriller, whose moral is "Never get swept off your feet by a handsome control freak." Ann Campbell's (Amy Locane) fiance, Tom Baker (William McNamara), asks her to baby-sit for little Katie Everett (Kara Keough), the daughter of Tom's boss, Carl Everett (Richard Tyson), and his alcoholic wife, Chloe (Priscilla Barnes). Ann has no idea that Tom and Carl plan to fake Katie's kidnapping so they can extort dough from Katie's doting grandpa John Sawyer (Phillip Baker Hall). The plot goes seriously awry when Chloe pumps Carl for details about the ransom call, deduces that Carl is involved and angrily blasts him to death with a shotgun. Not only do the police doubt Chloe's story of how she can to shoot her husband — something about an intruder — but they grill Carl's employees and spot holes in Tom's version of events. Ann reads about Carl's murder and immediately prepares to take the child home to her mother, at which point Tom reveals his part in the botched scheme, threatens to kill Katie and vows to implicate Ann. Preppy pretty boy William McNamara and sorority sweetheart Amy Locane are badly miscast in this James Cain-style story of greed and betrayal, sloppily repeats plot revelations, allows every scene to run too long and suffers badly from McNamara's utter inability to seem menacing. Only Priscilla Barnes comes through unscathed; she gooses the stale proceedings with a few jolts of electricity and conveys her neurotic character's self-delusion with consistent authority.