"AUTOPSY: A LOVE STORY" (2002)

Starring: John Scott Mills, Dina Osmussen, Ginny Harman & Joe Estevez
Written by Guy Crawford, Tamarie Hargrove & John Scott Mills
Directed by Guy Crawford

Polly Staffle Rating: **

Charlie Bickle has found the woman of his dreams. The second he sees her, he is instantly attracted. But the relationship goes deeper than that. Charlie feels he is finally understood by someone. She listens to him. Charlie loves spending time with her so much that when he isn't with her, she is all he thinks about. There is one small problem though, the love of Charlie's life is dead. In "Autopsy: A Love Story," Charlie works in a morgue and his new girlfriend is a recent Jane Doe suicide.

Charlie's job is to buy unclaimed dead corpses at low prices, so he can slice and dice them up and sell the useable parts. He pays $300 for Jane and soon decides he wants to keep the woman around instead of butchering her.

This is not a horror movie, although there are a few scenes of gore. It's more of a study of human relationships and what someone will go through to try and satisfy their needs. We are also able to see the manifestation of a certain fetish. The relationship Charlie has with Jane is not sexual. We come to believe he is obviously attracted to her, but he doesn't use her for sexual needs. He simply spends hours talking to her.

At home Charlie has a girlfriend named Mary. She isn't very nice to him, and they do not have a very good relationship. They obviously never did. Mary is handicapped from a car wreck and is extremely needy. If the couple had a loving relationship before the accident, things would be different. Their relationship consists of Charlie waiting on Mary hand and foot and in return gets nothing. There is no love. Charlie feels used. Ironically, his new girlfriend Jane is even more needy than Mary. Jane can't even hold her head up.

Someone then shows up looking for Jane. Charlie lies and says there is no one at the morgue that fits the description. Guilt leads him to eventually tell the truth. I will not give too many details away, but will say things turn out fine for Charlie in the end. He even gets to act out his new fetish that has obviously been building throughout the movie. I wasn't big on the ending, but I was happy it wasn't miserable for Charlie like the character in "Love Object," who fell for his sex doll.

John Scott Mills plays Charlie and is the reason this film works as well as it does. He is a cross between John C. Reilly and Tim Robbins, playing both someone creepy and someone we can sympathize with. His relationship with the corpse is believable and has a few moments that are almost sweet.

As far as no-budget films go, "Autopsy: A Love Story" was a pretty decent watch. I seem to be drawn to films with autopsy in the title. For whatever reason they always find their way to my watch list and I am usually disappointed. This time I was fairly pleased. It's definitely better than the superiorly titled "Cheerleader Autopsy" or the TV-made "Alien Autopsy."

- CCF, February 2006