One for the Money

This tonally clumsy adaptation of the initial title in author Janet Evanovich's popular mystery series stars Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum, a divorced unemployed woman who badgers her bail-bondsman cousin into giving her a gig as a skip tracer. Stephanie sets her sights on Joe Morelli (Jason O'Mara), a cop on the lam for purportedly killing a drug-dealer off-duty. Although Stephanie nurses a personal grudge against Morelli—who took advantage of her back in high school—it's pretty clear early on that the man is innocent and that he and Stephanie are destined to get together. But on the way to their preordained romance, the pair have to solve the mystery of the shooting for which Morelli's been indicted, and that turns out to be a complicated business involving a hooker who's disappeared, her pugilist boyfriend, his sleazy manager, a disfigured truck driver, and a motor-mouth witness (although the identity of the villain is quickly obvious). Over the course of unraveling the crime, Stephanie learns her trade, courtesy of an experienced tracer called Ranger (Daniel Sunjata). While One for the Money is far from a comedy, farcical elements involving Stephanie's sitcom family are awkwardly mixed in, and the action and comic elements don't really gel. While not a complete disaster, this is certainly bad enough to make any plan for a franchise highly improbable. Not recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette (12 min.), “Bond Girls: Kicking Ass in the Bail Bonds Industry” on real-life bail bondswomen (11 min.), a gag reel (3 min.), a brief deleted scene, and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is a bonus digital copy of the film. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a disappointing film.] (F. Swietek)