Slow Burn

Erotic thriller never catches fire

By Geoff Berkshire | Metromix

April 13, 2007

Mekhi Phifer ("ER") and Jolene Blalock ("Star Trek: Enterprise") star in the thriller "Slow Burn." (Philippe Bosse/Lionsgate)

The mildly sexy thriller "Slow Burn" starts off as an intriguing puzzle but piles on the twists until they stop making sense, and then pulls out a few more. Filmed all the way back in the summer of 2003, the movie's biggest surprise is that it even made it to theaters on the way to a more comfortable home on DVD and cable.

District attorney Ford Cole (Ray Liotta, "Goodfellas") is in for a long night when he learns that a star in his office, the celebrated biracial lawyer Nora Timmer (Jolene Blalock, "Star Trek: Enterprise"), shot and killed a man (Mekhi Phifer, "ER") in self-defense. Things get more complicated when a mysterious former cop, Luther Pinks (rapper LL Cool J), arrives to cast doubts on everything from Nora's story (he says she and the victim were lovers) to her racial identity.

Key roles are also filled by a gangland informant (Taye Diggs, "Rent") and a journalist (Chiwetel Ejiofor, "Children of Men") who is writing a profile on Cole. The film even introduces its own "Usual Suspects"-esque Keyser Söze figure, an elusive gang boss named Danny Lewton who may or may not be someone Cole already knows. One improbable clue: Lewton obsessively videotapes every episode of "Friends."

There's a fair amount of sex in the mix here but the allure of Blalock's partial nude scenes would've been greater back when the film was originally shot. As the ratings for "Enterprise" diminished so did her status as a minor sex symbol. And like the rest of the cast she delivers a solid but unspectacular performance.