Debbie Reynolds and Katherine Heigl in "One For the Money"; photo  courtesy of Lionsgate

“One For the Money” (Lionsgate)

Katherine Heigl landed the plum role of playing Janet Evanovich’s heroine Stephanie Plum in the movie adaptation of Evanovich’s book ONE FOR THE MONEY. It is a good role from a good story but somehow the movie version fails to capture the charm and excitement of the book. It goes back to the advice of if you want to enjoy “One For the Money” read the book first. The magic of Evanovich’s writing may spill over into what is happening on the silver screen.

Plum (Heigl) is a mess when first seen in the movie. She is out of her marriage, out of a job, and out of money. She is desperate to find a way to raise some money before her car is repossessed. She finally finds employment at her cousin’s bail bond shop. She, in a sense, becomes a bounty hunter. Of course she has no training or experience for this job but that doesn’t matter.

One of her first jobs is to find and bring in Joe Morelli (Jason Meara). He is a cop who is suspected of murder. He also was a boyfriend of Plum’s in the past. As she tries to bring him in, he evades her at every turn. Finally they team up to find out who the real killer is.

All of this sounds like light fun and even a little romantic but nothing makes it rise above average entertainment. Debbie Reynolds is cast as Plum’s slightly eccentric grandmother and she is fun, but not funny enough. Sherri Shepherd plays a prostitute informer who has a couple of funny scenes but she just isn’t in the movie enough to make an impact.

Then there is Heigl, the actress “Grey’s Anatomy” fans love to hate. When she left that show and took the character of “Izzie” with her the fans were outraged and they haven’t forgiven her yet. She has had some fairly successful movie roles but nothing that has made a huge impact on the ticket buying public. The role of Stephanie Plum was her big chance for redemption but it doesn’t seem to have worked.

The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.

“One For the money” could be a chance for a whole series of movies based on Evanovich’s books but to get there this one has to be a better than moderate success. It doesn’t look like it is headed in that direction.

I scored “One For the Money” a 5 for the show out of 10.