Based on an Untrue Story (1993)

At last, a merciless satire of those tedious factoid TV movies so often given the single asterisk treatment in this column. Perfumier Morgan Fairchild suffers from anosmia and needs a transplanted olfactory nerve from one of her separated at birth triplet sisters if she is ever to smell again, only to learn that one sister is an imprisoned serial killer and the other a backwoods schoolteacher engaged to a 13 year old pupil. Meanwhile, Dyan Cannon's driver strangles topless dancers, a little girl is trapped in a recycling bin, and there are some surprises about Fairchild's long lost parents. Some of the dumb dialogue is only very slightly exaggerated ('we wanted you more than a real baby, so we adopted you') and the Airplane! style gags have a decent hit to miss ratio.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Empire (issue unknown)

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