Bob Signorelli (Face Down)

Created by Thom Eberhardt

In the noirish, albeit too brightly-lit, made-for-TV flick Face Down (1997, Showtime), disgraced Big Apple cop turned dapper-dan Manhattan private eye BOB SIGNORELLI (played by a pre-Spenser Joe Mantegna) is no knight. He’s more like a randy middle-aged goat, hitting on a young, attractive and heart-broken client to whom he’s just provided proof of her husband’s infidelity.

Charming, eh?

But the cad stands her up for another potential client, Merre (played by Kelli Maroney), who’s a little sexier. Also a little crazier, it turns out. She wants to hire a detective because she’s convinced she’s being followed, and that someone is going into her apartment when she’s not there.

Bob discovers, after a one night stand, that Merre—who also goes by Meredith sometimes— may have more than a few mental health issues. And may—or may not—be involved in a murder or two.

Both Bob’s doughnut-loving secretary, Emily Jones, and his straight arrow partner, Herb Aames (J.K. Simmons… with hair), disapprove of the relationship. Bob, however, pays them little heed.

And then Herb turns up dead. In Bob’s car. It’s an obvious frame, and Bob has no choice but to go on the lam, while he continues trying to ease Merre out of the slimy clutches of her boss Derek Fry, a particularly pretentious art dealer played by Adam Ant (yes, THAT Adam Ant).

Meanwhile, Bob’s former NYPD partner, Lieutenant “Coop” Cooper (Peter Riegert), is looking into the murder of Richard Casio, a prominent Mafia shyster, and Merre’s name pops up. Could the two cases possibly be connected?

Gee, could they?

As to be expected, there’s some obligatory wobbly sax and some nifty camera angles to suggest noir, and there are a few neat plot twists, particularly as things get rolling.  I liked the notion that the fragile Merre may be an unwilling  femme fatale, and Mantegna does a good job of playing the natty, man-about-town gumshoe, while several tropes we’ve all seen a million times before get nicely scrambled around.  They also get bonus points for working in a nifty quote from Hammett‘s The Maltese Falcon, and it’s not the one about when a man’s partner is killed.

But this is just a slightly better than average example of straight-to-cable fare of the era, offering a little nudity for the “adults” (Oh, breasts!), marred by an eyeball-rolling conclusion that feels rushed (and dumb).

Three, maybe three-and-a-half stars outta five, but nothing more.

OH YEAH?

• Actor Kelli Maroney has said that playing the schizophrenic “Merrie/Meredith” was her most fulfilling role.

UNDER OATH

• “… a passable film noir… while writer-director Thom Eberhardt (Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, Night of the Comet) doesn’t really add anything to the genre, he honors its conventions with sufficient flair to make this a better-than-average TV movie.”
  —Todd Everett (The Los Angeles Times)

TELEVISION

• FACE DOWN | Buy this video
  (1997, Showtime)
  A Lion’s Gate Film
  Rated R for strong sexuality, violence and language.
  Written by Thom Eberhardt
  Directed by Thom Eberhardt
  Producers: Roni Weisberg and Thom Eberhardt
  In association with Hallmark Entertainment and Showtime
  Musical score by Gunther Schuller and jazz saxophonist Joe Lovano
  Filmed in Toronto
  Starring Joe Mantegna as BOB SIGNORELLI
  and Kelli Maroney as Merrie/Meredith
  With  J.K. Simmons as HERB AMES
  Also starring Peter Reigert, Adam Ant, Cameron Thor, Shannon Lawson

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.