V.I. Warshawski

V I WARSHAWSKI - DVD Movie

You couldn't do better than Kathleen Turner to bring Sara Peretsky’s tough but tender Chicago PI (who goes by her initials "because it makes it harder for people to patronize [her]") to the big screen. Too bad her vehicle is such routine murder mystery. The story of an insolent teenager (Angela Goethals) who hires Warshawski to investigate her father’s suspicious death never rises above TV detective show melodrama, and Jeff Kanew’s generic direction is less hardboiled than over-easy. The film’s pleasures are all in the performances: smart, stylish, and sassy, Turner can toss off a tart retort with the best of them and her chemistry with Goethals’s foul-mouthed wharf rat is as much mentor as maternal protector. Given a better script, Turner could have hung her shingle on this character for years to come. --Sean Axmaker