Movie Review : ‘Slate’s’ Reach Exceeds Grasp but Has Some Good Laughs

“Clean Slate” might seem even funnier if its premise wasn’t so good. As it is, you keep comparing what it is with what it could have been.

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It’s about an L.A. cop-turned-gumshoe, Maurice Pogue (Dana Carvey), who suffers from a rare form of amnesia that wipes out his memory every time he falls asleep. He wakes up with no idea who he is or what happened the day before. Worse, he’s about to appear as the key witness against a mobster in a murder case--but he can’t remember the mobster or the murder.

The film begins with Pogue’s terrier scooting across his porch and butting head first into a wall. The dog, you see, has a depth perception problem. (He wears an eye-patch.)

For a while, it looks as if “Clean Slate” is going to be one of those movies where the dog steals the show, particularly since no one else in the film seems to be performing up to the dog’s level. (His real name is Barkley and, according to the press kit, he’s “equally adept at comedy and drama.”)

Things perk up a bit when the plot finally kicks in. The premise takes too long to establish, though. It’s as if director Mick Jackson and screenwriter Robert King suffered from a form of amnesia themselves; they keep recapping stuff they’ve already established. They also milk jokes that weren’t all that funny to begin with, like the mural artist who keeps effacing his rendition of “Mona Lisa” because Pogue doesn’t recognize it.

Carvey would seem to be well-cast in the role of a man without an identity of his own. After all, Carvey’s specialty on “Saturday Night Live” was impersonations. But gifted mimics, when they’re called upon to create something closer to themselves, often blank out. (There’s no there there.) Carvey is much better here than he was in his last leading man outing, “Opportunity Knocks,” but he still seems weightless and wan. He’s best when he plays around with his own wispiness instead of just being wispy. Some of his deadpan befuddlements are right on the mark. He has the look of a man who is patiently, dedicatedly trying to rejigger his memory bank.

The excellent supporting cast have a few inspired moments. Michael Gambon’s mobster is a gelatinous dandy who regards Pogue as an annoying riddle. Michael Murphy, as Pogue’s doctor, seems to enjoy his patient’s quandaries; he’s like a sadistic Oliver Sacks. Valeria Golina, playing Pogue’s girlfriend (sort of), has a cushy comic sense. Rumbly-voiced James Earl Jones plays a district attorney named, appropriately, Dolby. Kevin Pollak is Pogue’s assistant D.A. best friend who can’t assimilate the hilariously obvious evidence that Pogue is having an affair with his fiancee. Pollak and Carvey get a real comic tempo ticking in some of their scenes: Pollak is like a revue-sketch Othello to Carvey’s Stan Laurel-ish Iago.

Jackson attempts to jack up the high jinks with lots of quick cutting and swervy camera moves. Some of it works, some of it just seems like desperation. He works in doodly little references to “Groundhog Day” as well as “The 39 Steps,” “The Big Sleep” and many other mystery thrillers; there’s even what appears to be a plug for “That’s Entertainment! III”--also an MGM production. (A bodyguard watches clips from it on TV while Pogue sweats it out in a locked sauna.)

“Clean Slate” is the kind of movie where just about everybody involved seems to be working below their best level. But glints of their best stuff comes through anyway, which makes this comedy about amnesia almost worth remembering.

* MPAA rating: PG-13, for language. Times guidelines: It includes scenes of a dog butting into a wall and a loud fiery explosion .

‘Clean Slate’

Dana Carvey: Pogue

Valeria Golina: Sarah/Beth

James Earl Jones: Dolby

Kevin Pollak: Rosenheim

A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer presentation. Director Mick Jackson. Producers Richard D. Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck. Screenplay by Robert King. Cinematographer Andrew Dunn. Editor Priscilla Nedd-Friendly. Costumes Ruth Myers. Music Alan Silvestri. Production design Norman Reynolds. Set decorator Anne Kuljian. Running time: 1 hour, 43 minutes.

* In general release throughout Southern California.