Review: Head Over Heels (2001)

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Suspense can be the hardest thing for a director to build. It takes real work to make a solid film based on the doubt and suspicion of a central character. Mark Waters tries to do just that with Head over Heels. The result is equal parts Hitchcock-on-valium and dumb model jokes.

Art restorer Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) meets the man of her dreams, played by Freddie Prinze Jr. He lives conveniently across the street, which allows Amanda and her four supermodel roommates to spy on the sweet-faced suitor. The real-life models act out their profession's stereotypes with competence. The story seems headed for happy romantic comedy resolution until the girls witness what they think is Prinze Jr.'s character brutally murdering a woman. Then the plot isn't devolves into disarray. The cops won't listen, prompting Amanda and her cohorts to take the investigation into their own hands. Teen dreamboats, supermodel klutzes, Rear Window, and terrible toilet jokes: Head over Heels tumbles.