Love Is a Gun Reviews

In the erotic thriller LOVE IS A GUN, a rather intriguing premise is allowed to dissipate through lack of sustained attention, ultimately degenerating into yet another FATAL ATTRACTION rip-off. During his first day on the job, LAPD crime-scene photographer Jack Hart (Eric Roberts) comes across an enigmatic photograph of a beautiful woman. Encouraged to enter a Forensics Department photo contest with the theme "A Woman's Place," he tracks down the model (Kelly Preston), who turns out to be a photographer herself, going by the professional name of Jean Starr. Soon, to the consternation of his live-in girlfriend Isabel (Eliza Garrett), he's infatuated with Starr; adding insult to injury, he gives her his grandmother's antique wedding ring, which he had promised Isabel for their imminent engagement. By the time reason prevails, Starr is stalking both Hart and Isabel. A vengeful manipulator with a long and sordid past, she finally gets her just desserts, but not before bridges are burned, and Isabel moves on to someone else. Initially a simple story of love and obsession, LOVE IS A GUN gets wiggy as Hart's fixation begins to jell. An antique watch that stops at precisely the moment he awakens from a nightmare leads him to a European watchmaker right out of the Brothers Grimm. Actors on a TV soap opera discuss a hapless soul whose curious plight exactly parallels his own. Starr seduces him into believing they've had a previous relationship, even though he can't remember anything. None of this is helped by the increasing grotesqueries he encounters as part of his day job. But the real wild card here is Roberts's performance. One of the few genuinely interesting actors who consistently works in straight-to-video, Roberts will blow a ragged hole in one of these paper-thin plots if given the opportunity. Here, he's at his twitchiest--weeping and giggling shamelessly, pumped up on gallows humor, anticipating his imminent tumble like Dagwood in the BLONDIE series. Ultimately, such antics tend to undermine the larger narrative, but it sure is fun to watch. (Violence, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.)