One Role Plenty For Locklear To Handle
There’s only one Heather Locklear, thank goodness.
Unfortunately, she plays multiple roles in NBC’s “Shattered Mind” at 9, an overwritten, exploitive and horrendously acted attempt to use multiple-personality disorder as a vehicle for Locklear’s limited talents.
It’s as if you’re watching four different actresses. That’s because Locklear, who plays wicked Amanda Woodward on FOX’s “Melrose Place”, is as bad at one as she is the next.
As suicidal housewife, pool-playing hooker, wild teenager and innocent child, Locklear is as subtle as a brick. You can see her trying so hard, it makes you cringe.
But what do you expect? A couple of seasons on “Melrose” probably would turn Meryl Streep into Delta Burke.
If you ignore my warning and watch “Shattered Minds,” pay close attention. The script is such a mess you can lose track of who’s who.
It makes so little sense it’s as if you crossed “The Three Faces of Eve” with a bad episode of “Knots Landing.”
One thing you won’t have trouble “getting” is that Locklear’s character was sexualy abused by her late father. About a dozen overdone flashbacks eliminate any doubt.
An annoying attempt to create suspense, they have the opposite effect.
This movie proves that Locklear has really found her niche - on “Melrose Place.”
Highlights
“Columbo: Undercover” (1994), ABC at 8: Columbo (Peter Falk) employs a series of disguises to gather clues leading to some missing bank-heist money. But someone else, someone willing to kill for the money, is following the same trail.
Standard “Columbo” fare is enhanced by Falk’s masquerades.
“Starlight Figure Skating Championship,” FOX at 8: Central Park’s Wollman Rink is the setting for this international competition that features amateur and professional skaters. Todd Eldredge, Scott Hamilton, Nicole Bobek, Katarina Witt and Kurt Browning are among the competitors. Taped in October.
“Great Performances,” KSPS at 9 : “Divas” pokes fun at prima donnas in this BBC production that examines the careers of Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Jessye Norman and other opera greats.
Says Nicholas Payne, opera director of London’s Royal Opera House: “There are moments when (divas) are definitely not worth the trouble and you would happily boot them down Floral Street.”
“Murphy Brown,” CBS at 9: In one of the better episodes of the past season, Murphy (Candice Bergen) visits her alma mater and is dismayed to find a women’s studies program out of touch with the campus feminist movement she recalls.
“The American Film Institute Salute to Clint Eastwood,” ABC at 10: Jim Carrey and Rene Russo host the salute. Watching Carrey’s wild, rubberfaced antics are more fun than watching the Clint clips we know almost by heart.
Reflecting on Eastwood’s 30-year career as actor and director are actors Forest Whitaker, Dylan McDermott and Don Rickles (Eastwood’s co-star in “Kelly’s Heroes”) and director Steven Spielberg.
Cable Calls
“Hostile Advances” (1996), LIF at 9: Rena Sofer (“General Hospital”) portrays Vermont Internal Revenue Service agent Kerry Ellison, who in 1986 sued a male co-worker for sexual harassment.
The case, though never tried, led to a landmark decision rewriting the guidelines for sexual harassment cases, specifically to allow for complaints to be viewed from a woman’s perspective.
The movie, told from Ellison’s point of view, makes a critical connection between harassment and a woman’s fear of physical violence. Sofer’s emotional performance betrays her soap-opera roots, and Victor Garber as her obsessed co-worker is way over the top.
But these shortcomings don’t ruin an otherwise thoughtful and engaging movie.
Talk Time
“Tonight,” NBC at 11:35: George Clooney (“ER”), actress Jennifer Jason Leigh and musical group Goo Goo Dolls. Repeat.
“Late Show With David Letterman,” CBS at 11:35: Actor Mel Gibson and comedian Ray Romano. Repeat.
“Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” NBC at 12:35 a.m.: John Goodman (“Roseanne”), Gloria Reuben (“ER”) and musical guest Afghan Whigs. Repeat.