Boy meets girl. Boy falls madly in love with girl. Following the path of its love-at-first sight predecessors, Head Over Heels (Universal Pictures) is not what one would call an original. The movie opens as Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter, Patch Adams) discovers her boyfriend sleeping with a lingerie model. Heartbroken and homeless, Amanda is wondering if men will ever make her feel as weak in the knees as the paintings at the Met have the power to do.
On a search for a new apartment, Amanda stumbles into Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze Jr., Down to You), a ritzy fashion executive whose very presence gives her butterflies. Although she is compelled to chase after him, Amanda denies her feelings to prevent another heartache, and finds an apartment with four hilarious supermodels with a view of Jim’s pad.
The high-class supermodel roommates each fill a different model stereotype: Candi (Sarah O’ Hare), the dumb blonde, Jade (Shalom Harlow), the diamond-obsessed sweetie, Holly (Tomiko Frasier), the practical thinker and Roxanna (Ivana Milicevic), the seductive Russian. As the models show Amanda the ropes on how to attract Jim Winston’s attention, they join in the window-spying fun, watching Jim workout, baby sit and buy candy from Girl Scouts.
The more the roommates try to convince Amanda that Jim is her perfect match, the deeper she searches for his flaws. But just when Jim seems to be the “perfect man,” the spying girls catch him in the middle of a murderous fiasco.
The movie goes on to show the five knock-outs in their investigation to uncover the real Jim Winston. They search everywhere to find clues that he is a murderer, but he proves himself flawless again and again. Blessed with a gentle heart and a strong build, he appears to be the perfect. As Amanda’s relationship with Jim deepens, the truth about the murder begins to unfold.
Paired for the second time with director Mark S. Waters, Freddie Prinze Jr. seems unfit to play a character with such business prestige. Prinze’s cute looks will certainly attract the teenage girls responsible for his success, but his romantic-comedy routine will steer away intelligent moviegoers.
Monica Potter plays the natural-beauty role well. Her future looks bright, and she will appear in the upcoming Along Comes the Spider, with veteran actor Morgan Freeman. In addition to being drop-dead gorgeous, the models keep viewers laughing with their wild adventures and silly antics. But at times the jokes become repetitive and distasteful. Overall, Head Over Heels is no Shakespearean comedy, but it provides a fun-filled, if content-empty, night of entertainment.
