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CHERISH

Indie quirkster Finn Taylor (Dream with the Fishes) again delves into the offbeat with this plucky romantic comedy that morphs into a psychological thriller. Zoe (Robin Tunney) is a trippy chatterbox working in an animation studio. She never meets the right guy (though she hooks up with plenty of posers), and when she does, she gets carjacked and a cop is killed. No one believes her, so she’s saddled with vehicular homicide and held under house arrest in a slummy neighborhood. Within the tethered confines, Zoe is drawn to her anal-retentive collar-program officer (Tim Blake Nelson) while devising a cockamamie plan to catch the "real" killer. Meanwhile, is the crippled gay Jewish dwarf on the first floor a mole?

For the most part, Tunney carries the film on her sparkle, but Finn keeps jerking her from one vignette to the next and precluding any emotional development. The nostalgic ’80s soundtrack, featuring Soft Cell, Human League, and Hall and Oates (the good stuff!) takes on a role of its own. And as part of the strange eclectic cast (which includes Nora Dunn and Jason Priestley), pop icon Liz Phair makes her screen debut as a corporate bitch; like much of the film, she’s superficially alluring.

BY TOM MEEK

Issue Date: June 13 - 20, 2002
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