Deception - Tödliche Täuschung

RELEASED TO VIDEO IN 1995/1996 and written & directed by Pat Verducci, "True Crime" (aka "Dangerous Kiss") is a mystery/crime/teen/romance starring Alicia Silverstone as a Catholic school senior in California who befriends a police cadet (Kevin Dillon) to solve a case of serial killings of young women. Their investigations lead them to a traveling carnival. Bill Nunn plays the girl's detective friend and the cadet's boss.

This came out right after Alicia's breakthrough flicks "The Crush" (1993) and "Clueless" (1995) and, while entertaining for what it is, it pales by comparison. The main problem isn't the cast, locations or excellent percussion-oriented score, but rather the script; and, more specifically, who the killer turns out being. With just a couple imaginative tweaks this could've been a very satisfying teen mystery à la Nancy Drew, but with considerable edge. Still, Silverstone makes it agreeable, along with the other highlights noted. If you like those other two flicks, this is a must.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour, 34 minutes and was shot in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, CA.

GRADE: B-

Alicia Silverstone stars in True Crime in which she plays a Catholic school girl about to graduate who has an intense interest in criminology. In a more innocent time she would have been cast as Nancy Drew.

One thing in those Nancy Drew novels and also with the Hardy Boys the juvenile sleuths never went after criminals whose mental states were in question. If you can recall the kids going after a sex criminal so be it, I sure can't. Takes a whole different kind of perspective in dealing with that. A theme that should have been more clearly developed but wasn't in the film.

During the course of the investigation she starts looking at a stranger hanging around where her school girl friends go. It turns out to be Kevin Dillon who is close to graduating the police academy. The two turn into an R rated Nancy Drew and Ted Nickerson. But it certainly doesn't end that way.

I think the roles were superficially drawn here and the players not given direction enough so they were left to their own devices. This had the potential to be better than it is.

I searched out this one after seeing the hilarious and linguistically challenging "Clueless" (1995), perhaps Alicia Silverstone's best known effort from early in her film career. "True Crime" has Kevin Dillon, which should be helpful in improving most film projects. In fact everyone in the cast does a good job . The only disappointment I think the movie has for me is an awkward "feel" to some of the scenes, coming from the need to run a quite uncompromising, grown up theme as part of what in tone starts out as a schoolgirl adventure.

Alicia Silverstone is pretty good in this one. She carries off well the naive enthusiasm and growing unease that affects Mary Giordano as she manoeuvres towards the truth behind the serial murders. I reckon her characterization of MG has some mileage in it too. The inference of the story line is that she goes on to a career in law enforcement. It could be really interesting for an older Silverstone to revisit Giordano at a time of crisis later in the officer's life. Just a thought!

"True Crime" shows its director in a good light. Pat Verducci also has the writing credit. I don't know of any other film work PV has done. I can only wonder what happened after such a promising start.

Like most productions, this one has a largely unknown supporting cast, although Bill Nunn (Detective Jerry Guinn) is hardly that. Over the past decade he seems to have been able to secure an impressive number of screen appearances. I recall seeing him recently in "Carriers" (1998), a made for TV presentation with a military theme. Bill Nunn played "Captain Arends". Fans of the classic US TV comedy show "Who's the Boss" may also have an interest in "Carriers" because the leading player is Judith Light, remembered with affection by many because of her lengthy involvement with the show.

"True Crime" could easily not have worked, but it does OK. I think it is an entertaining story worth seeing.

The movie never becomes intolerable to watch. And to tell it straight, it has nothing to show either, except maybe part-sexy Alicia Silverstone in a nerdy non-sexy character in revealing quite-sexy dresses. The story is very easy to follow or there's nothing to follow -- you can see in either way. There is no suspense, little action, unimpressive dialogs, unsatisfactory sensuality, same boring locations and very bland acting. Kevin Dillon is totally worthless. Silverstone... well, I didn't concentrate too much on her acting, I confess. Yet as I said earlier, if one has nothing to do except watching a movie, this won't look so bad. 4/10

I saw this made-for-video movie on TV once and was quite impressed with it. It stars Alicia Silverstone as Mary Giordano, a student who has an addiction to mystery novels and detective magazines. She uses her knowledge of detective work to intervene in a homicide case, and teams up with police cadet Tony Campbell (Kevin Dillon) to try to solve it.

The chemistry between Mary and Tony were good and the movie has a good thrilling and exhilarating feel to it. For a made-for-video movie, the script made for an exciting plot and kept me engaged, especially when he came to the part when Mary finds herself becoming a victim of her own circumstances.

While the plot may be predictable, it does go at a steady momentum and the acting throughout wasn't bad. Overall, this makes for a good movie to keep you entertained on a slow night.

Grade B