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R: ARCHIVE, S: REVIEWS, D: 06/19/1997,

Head Above Water

Comedies about corpses range in quality from The Trouble with Harry to Weekend at Bernie's. Head Above Water lies somewhere between the two, with its inventively convoluted plot and black humor almost overcoming the implausibility, contrivance, and stylelessness that betray its HBO origins. On a resort island off the coast of Maine, George (Harvey Keitel playing against type, and failing), a fuddy-duddy judge, goes on a fishing trip with Lance (Craig Shaffer), the vaguely Norman Bates-like friend of his young new wife, Nathalie (a spunky Cameron Diaz). While they're gone, her raffish ex-lover Kent (Billy Zane) drops by for an unexpected visit. Kent hits on Nathalie, gets drunk, and is found dead the next morning.

What follows is an intricate, if breathless, series of deceptions, miscommunications, and treacheries as the couple try to dispose of the body, coming up with some fresh new gags for the inconvenient-corpse scenario along the way. After flailing around a lot, Head Above Water just about manages the title feat, though first-time director Jim Wilson is clearly out of his depth. At the Coolidge Corner.

-- Peter Keough