This one is for that small coterie of Kate Beckinsale fans. She's quite young here and, with a tomboyish haircut, looks and acts like a post-Disney Hayley Mills. And a little obligatory nudity from our heroic pixie helps her fans put up with the mediocre goings-on before and after. The film itself has an interesting core idea, but I frankly thought it would be more about the ramifications of the painting's ancient mystery (ala 'Da Vinci Code') than an excuse to pile up present-day murders via a chess game associated with the painting. Of course, I didn't realize that this film is from 1994, before the 'Da Vinci Code' phenomenon. But the chess game routine is quite old hat, 1994 or otherwise. The music score is also far too lighthearted and bouncy for what is supposed to be a thriller. As always, the carnage accumulating around the heroine doesn't seem to faze the cops who appear to wait for the next killing, show up, then calmly survey the damage and ponder why it just keeps happening around our female lead. This one is a time killer for those who have way too much time on their hands.
