POISONED CHERRIES

Oz Blackstone, p.i. and movie actor (Autographs in the Rain, 2001, etc.), underwhelms as both.

Yes, there’s a big budget cop movie being filmed in Edinburgh, but only snails would feel tested by the pace. It’s just as well, because Oz needs the time to sort out a clutch of female problems. To begin with, his marriage has been in the tank since Primavera, his wife, decamped with her lover—granted, not a complete loss, since he no longer likes her that much. In the meantime, his girlfriend Susie has gone and had his baby. Though Oz, nine-tenths tomcat, might view that as bad news, he actually likes Susie a lot—until the entrance of Alison, a distressed former girlfriend who appears out of the blue. Her lover/business partner David has disappeared. For reasons not entirely persuasive, Oz decides it’s a good idea for the two of them to go to David’s apartment to thump on his door. Oz thumps, but David doesn’t answer because his body is already cooling. Predictably, Alison becomes a leading suspect. Subsequent murders produce additional suspects, stirring up the mystery, but the whodunit question is much less urgent than the burning romance-novel question: Can Oz be a standup guy for Susie?

Mindless but harmless British import.