`Clean Slate': Fun, Flimsy - And Forgettable

------------------------------------------------------------------ Movie review

XX "Clean Slate," with Dana Carvey, Valeria Golino, Michael Gambon, Michael Murphy and Kevin Pollack. Directed by Mick Jackson, from a screenplay by Robert King. Alderwood, Crossroads, Everett Mall, Factoria, Kent, Kirkland Parkplace, Metro, Mountlake 9, Newmark, Oak Tree, Parkway Plaza, SeaTac Mall, Valley drive-in. "PG-13" - Parental guidance strongly suggested, because of mature humor, mild profanity. ------------------------------------------------------------------

For some perplexing reason that is never explained, Dana Carvey wears an annoyingly conspicuous bandage on his neck throughout the entire length of "Clean Slate," a potentially fine comedy that's plagued by far greater problems than a single mysterious Band-Aid. The whole movie needs a first-aid kit.

Maybe Carvey had a close encounter with Tom Cruise at the "Interview with a Vampire" wrap party . . . who can say? He's free of blame as the star of this semi-amusing amnesia comedy, which ironically should never have been a Carvey vehicle to begin with.

Produced by the makers of "Driving Miss Daisy" and sorely misguided by Mick Jackson, the director of "The Bodyguard," the movie lacks nothing in behind-the-camera prestige, and it's easy to imagine the good movie that might have been made from Robert King's cleverly convoluted screenplay. But as a showcase for Carvey, the focus of King's gumshoe plot has been shifted to lightweight laughs, when an emphasis on intricate thrills (with comedy as a side dish) might have yielded stronger results.

As it is, "Clean Slate" is a less satisfying variation on "Groundhog Day" in which Carvey (recently departed from "Saturday Night Live") plays a Venice, Calif., private detective who suffers from a head injury that wipes his memory clean whenever he falls asleep.

As he wakes up clueless every morning, aided only by tape-recorded memos he'd left for himself the previous night, he must piece together facts about his latest case - a blackmail scheme involving an Italian beauty (Valeria Golino) who stole a near-priceless gold coin from a suave villain (Michael Gambon) and is now being used to manipulate Carvey into locating the hidden coin. With no consistent memory to aid his accumulation of clues, Carvey's case gets even tougher as details are alternately uncovered and forgotten.

It's a fun but flimsy premise, and although Carvey is often entertaining as he's forced to cheat his way through a variety of sticky situations with people who assume his memory's intact, his skills as an impersonator and physical comedian are never gracefully used because the story never logically calls for them. Too often Carvey's doing his "SNL" shtick for no other reason than that's what he's known for, and it gets pretty incongruous in a plot that begs to be treated like a "Total Recall"-styled mind game.

Jackson also fails to generate the brisk momentum that made "Groundhog Day" a classic of cumulative comedy. "Clean Slate" was written to boil over in a coherent fever pitch, but Jackson arrives at something closer to cacophonous mayhem before simmering to a pat happy ending. There are definitely some laughs to be found here - many of them concerning the faulty depth perception of Carvey's one-eyed dog - but even the bits that pay off will quickly fade from memory.