Mini's First Time
A nymphet with a grudge is usually a promising combination for a thriller, andMini's First Timelays on the Lolita complex in the capable person ofThirteenstar Nikki Reed. Having been a bad girl at a tender age in that one, Reed plays a slightly older but even more dangerous teen inMini, as the lethal daughter of a wannabe Hollywood actress (Carrie-Anne Moss) who never was. Joining the ranks of professional escorts while still in high school, Mini has an unsavory "meet cute" with her future partner in crime:  answering a call at a hotel, she sleeps with her surprised stepfather (Alec Baldwin). Pretty soon the odd couple is cooking up ways of getting the mother out of the picture--first by psychological war, then by, well, more extreme measures. Director Nick Guthe tries to draw out the Hollywood satire as well as the modern-noir elements, but the tone is too glib for the mix to sit well, and there isn't quite enough happening on either front for the movie to gain real traction. However, this HBO-produced picture does present a handful of delicious performances, led by Baldwin's marvelous portrait of a self-disgusted middle-aged man who might actually have fallen in love... the poor sap. Moss is a revelation in a comic role (she does an expert drunk act) and Jeff Goldblum contributes his uniquely discursive muttering to a few scenes. Luke Wilson plays a police detective so droll and laid-back he seems to have wandered in from a Wes Anderson film, or possibly an old episode ofColumbo.--Robert Horton