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Maneater

 (Two-part movie -- Lifetime, Sat.-Sun. May 30-31, 9 p.m.)

By BRIAN LOWRY

'Maneater'

Filmed in Arizona by Sony Pictures Television. Executive producers, Stephanie Davis, Suzanne Martin, Gigi Levangie Grazer; co-executive producers, Timothy Busfield, Jocelyn Freid cq; producer, Hans Proppe; director, Busfield; writer, Martin, based on the book by Grazer.
 
Clarissa Alpert - Sarah Chalke
Gravy - Judy Greer
Aaron - Philip Winchester
Simon - Paul Leyden
Teddy - Gregory Harrison
Alejandra - Maria Conchita Alonso
Jennifer - Marla Sokoloff
Polo - Noureen Dewulf
Suzee - Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon
 

This two-part Lifetime movie is "presented by Vaseline Aloe Fresh," which might be the only fresh thing found in these laborious four hours. Based on "The Starter Wife" author Gigi Levangie Grazer's second novel, "Maneater" lacks the identifiable scorned-woman hook of that earlier production (adapted for USA), thus emerging as a rather heartless soap that unconvincingly uses Hollywood as a backdrop and squanders a reasonably impressive cast. Pic could still connect with a suds-hungry audience, but mostly patrols the shallowest ends of the chick-lit pool.

Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs") plays the title character, Clarissa, a social-climbing thirtysomething suddenly panicked by the thought of having to support herself once her skirt-chasing dad (Gregory Harrison) stops doing so. She's introduced sauntering into a bar and indulging in a one-night stand, complaining in narration that casual sex wasn't really that great "if you can find your earrings and your underwear the next morning."

Aghast at the thought of working, Clarissa's epiphany is to rope and marry a hot movie producer, Aaron Mason (Philip Winchester, fresh off NBC's short-lived "Crusoe"), who she promptly seduces -- between some hanging out with her equally shallow gal pals and flirtations with a hunky ex -- and quickly weds. Far from "happily ever after," though, that just begins a string of headaches, heartbreaks and bizarre twists, with the last all arriving in the opening half's last 10 minutes or so, the better to pull you into the second night.

Directed by Timothy Busfield and written by Suzanne Martin, the movie finally proves too choppy and episodic to enjoy much emotional resonance or generate a rooting interest amid Clarissa and Aaron's blinking-light (on-off, on-off) romance. Nor does the plot provide enough material for the likes of the talented Judy Greer and Marla Sokoloff as Clarissa's socialite pals, or Maria Conchita Alonso as her cougar-ish mom.

Chalke has exhibited a deft comic touch elsewhere, but it's put to marginal use in a project that even at four hours feels rushed and disjointed. The supporting players, meanwhile, amount to little more than "Sex and the City"-like sounding boards, there to prod the generally unlikable Clarissa along as she plumbs new levels of emotional depth that -- given where she started, uttering lines like, "I love being rich" -- never prove wholly convincing.

Similarly, despite Grazer's insider status, the Hollywood references feel little more than cosmetic, with Scottsdale serving as a poor location stand-in.

What's left, then, is a pretty conventional soap with unappealing characters. And by the time Clarissa finally gets around to explaining it all, "Maneater" has long since chewed through whatever goodwill it might have mustered.

Camera, Kenneth D. Zunder; production designer, Kenneth Hardy; editor, Janet Ashikaga; music, Daniel Licht; casting, Tammara Billik, Jason Wood. RUNNING TIME: 4 HOURS