HEAD OVER HEELS

You won’t necessarily fall head over heels for this cutesy romantic comedy. After Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) walks into their apartment and finds a model mounting her boyfriend, she moves in with a quartet of her own runway darlings. They run around half-naked, the others dress her up, and they collectively moon over neighbor Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a hot fashion executive, as he sweats through sets of chin-ups across the street. A painting restorer by trade, Amanda’s a sappy weak-in-the knees type — until she witnesses what looks to be her perfect subject committing a murder. The sap turns into a sleuth, scouring New York for evidence that Winston’s not the unblemished character he makes himself out to be.

The marriage between morose director Mark Waters (House of Yes) and madcap producer Robert Simonds (The Waterboy) is appropriately manic — think poopoo jokes, stupid models falling on top of each other, and, hmmm, a psychokiller! Of course, the ridiculous run-around ends tidily with sentimental smooches. Head over Heels doesn’t quite fall flat, but it may be a film you’d rather see with your head in the clouds.

— Nina Willdorf