The Alarmist

(Columbia Tristar)

First-time director Evan Dunsky's adaptation of Keith Reddin's Off Broadway play stars Stanley Tucci (suitably reptilian, in a lovable way) as the owner of a shady home-security company who tries to seduce his idealistic, naive young salesman (an unctuous David Arquette) -- and indeed the salesman is not above celebrating a sale to his first customer (Kate Capshaw) by sleeping with her. The film pushes on such hot-button subjects as middle-class paranoia, younger man/older woman romance, and the ethics of greed, but in the end it's all a false alarm.