With the feds closing in on his operations, drug dealer Alex Brant decides to step up the pressure on those that are after him by kidnapping the wife of district prosecutor Phil Rafelson. Coincidently Caroline Rafeslon is in hospital for plastic surgery to her face but, when the bandages are removed it is not her but a younger woman that is revealed. Before Phil can say "value for money" the woman has fled the hospital and soon he gets a call from someone saying they have his wife and he needs to do what they say. With the need for Phil to be on top form for his case, Frank Darnell turns to Jane Doe for help to solve the mystery.
This was my first look at the Jane Doe series and, before pressing play, I didn't even know it existed. The presence of Perry Mason regular Moses and a few other names I knew made me think that I should give it a go and maybe find a new detective film series to start finding. The plot here is reasonably good and is delivered with a nice pace to it that helps cover up how very thin it is at times. The main problem I had was that I didn't get a feel for who Jane Doe was as a character she is a mix of housewife and secret agent for the government but her homely approach to life didn't really endear her to me, nor did it work within the mystery. For example, Columbo has his mannerisms but they are part of the formula whereas here I wasn't sure what Jane brought to the party.
Lea Thompson is quite good in the lead regardless though and she was quite fun. However she should thank her stars for the hefty presence of Penny, who made the film seem a bit tougher by his mere size and delivery. The support cast features some nice turns from Starr and Wise but the presence of faces and names I recognised just made it easier to figure out who was the bad guys and not. Overall though, the standard was OK for a TVM mystery and I found it relatively breezy and easy to just watch. Not enough of a hook to it to make me seek out any more of the Jane Doe films but if I get the chance I'll take a look at another one on the basis that this was average.
