No Clue

This film tells the story of a salesman who gets mistaken to be a private investigator. He is hired to investigate the disappearance of a famous computer game programmer. Hilarity ensues when he is clearly out of his depth for the increasingly complicated crime.

"No Clue" is really quite entertaining because the main character, Leo, is clearly unintelligent. His responses are silly for the situations he encounters, as he has no clue what he's doing. Yet the woman hiring him send to have no clue about his incompetence either. The whole premise is funny and at the same time suspenseful and mysterious. The mystery is maintained even through the numerous jokes. When the ending reveals what really happened, I think the plot is quite clever in making many characters suspects, but only one is the real crook. I enjoyed watching it.

I was looking just to kill time and found this obscure movie on Amazon Prime streaming. I didn't expect much but when it was all over I was thrilled that I got much more than I thought I would.

The Canadian story and script were written by Brent Butt, a funny guy who also plays the lead character Leo. He is a salesman, trinkets that businesses buy for their customers or employees. Think coffee cups with company logo, those sorts of things.

Amy Smart, who I have always admired, plays Kyra. One slow day she wanders into Leo's office, thinking it was the office of a P. I. on the same floor. As she sits and tells him of her missing brother and how she wants to hire him he has a chance to say "I think you are in the wrong office" but never does. In essence he becomes a P. I. by luck, by accident.

(Later we wonder, does she really have a brother? Did she really go to his office by accident? She turns out to be a pretty shady person.)

Anyway this is a madcap type of movie. Leo's approach and his way of fitting small clues reminded me of Bill Pullman's P. I. character in "The Zero Effect." It is just entertainment and I found the whole 90 minutes or so very entertaining.

I gave this film an 8 for no other reason than I smiled the entire way through, it was certainly not brilliant like an 8 should be but it was light hearted farce that I enjoyed more than most films I have seen recently.

The plot starts as basic film noir,femme fatale arrives at private dick's office in crisis, only problem is it is the office next door and the guy is a nerdy novelty sales man Very well written and never taking itself seriously, poking fun at the genre with horrible self narrations and bizarre interactions it reminded of movies like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, The Man Who Knew Too Little and The Man With One Red Shoe.

Best yet were no car chases in a modern detective film! People that gave this flick poor marks simply have no sense of humor! I'll watch it again!

I didn't recognize the name Brent Butt but was interested in seeing Amy Smart. Now, I wasn't watching the movie so much as I was listening to it and I soon realized that the main character's voice was familiar - I looked up and it was that guy from Corner Gas - Brent Butt. After three seasons of that sitcom I grew weary of the repetition but this was a much better vehicle for Butt's often self-deprecating humor, though I suppose if the movie had gone on much longer it may have become tiresome as well.

The story is, to a degree, predictable but there are enough twists and turns to keep it interesting. The acting is overall good and it of course has that Canadian wholesomeness that doesn't offend. By that I mean there was no going out of the way to ingratiate themselves to special interest groups, or the vulgar.

In the end it's solid movie with flashes of brilliance as well as banality but ultimately landing in the "fun for the whole family" category.

Decent light fare. Good performances, a plot that holds together.