A music-obsessed social caterpiller comes to life while under house-arrest ... and a bad-ass mofo named Bill is in the movie, too.

Cherish is one of those movies that is mis-represented by its advertising. The movie poster of Robin Tunney (The Craft) standing seductively against a hot pink background is misleading. Directed by Finn Taylor, the movie is much darker in tone than the ads suggest.

It starts out with Tunney playing a music-obsessed and socially mis-guided girl named Zoe. Zoe works for a graphic design agency and her boss just happens to be Liz Phair, whose character name is Brynn Alan. (Yes, like the photography people.) Zoe doesn't really know how to take control of a conversation, and her social skills are lacking. She overhears fellow co-workers talking about a party to take place later on that night, and when she approaches them, Liz Phair sets her straight with a catty remark "Its kind of an invite-only thing, honey," and puts a flyer for the party through the paper shredder.

Zoe rescues the paper shreds and gets out the tape, and shows up at a dark nightclub that is reminiscent of dark junior high school make out parties. She has a few too many to drink, and when she gets in her car, there is a man inside who tells her to keep her mouth shut and drive. Typical hostage situation. Until she hits and kills a bike policeman. The man who held her up flees the scene, and nobody listens or believes Zoe when she tells them about him, simply because her blood alcohol level was over double the legal limit.

In movie-land, you don't get hard time for killing a cop. You get put in a huge apartment with all your stuff, with a little bracelet on your ankle that tells the higher-ups where you are at all times. And you get an adorably likeable parole officer named Bill, played by Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?) who comes and checks in every few days.

And what shut-in wouldn't be complete without a quirky downstairs neighbor? Max, played by Ricardo Gil, is the "dwarf-handicapped-jewish-gay kid" who befriends Zoe and helps her in a few bad situations. He knows he's different, folks, as he explains in a funny conversation with Zoe.

Ultimately Zoe's obsession with forgotten top 40 AM tunes will lead her to the man stalking her, and it also makes for a good soundtrack. Good in the god-i-hope-nobody-ever-catches-me-singing-along-to-"I'm Not in Love"-by-10CC kind of way.

I won't give away too much of the rest of the movie, but I will say this. She does end up proving that she was a hostage when she killed the policeman. She has to find enough evidence against this man who is still stalking her in the only few days before her trial, all while under house arrest.

Tunney is likeable throughout the movie with ultimately human feelings and behaviors that leave you thinking "I would be doing the same thing if I were cooped up all alone." Or maybe it just left me thinking that. Her appearence and social skills also improve during her house arrest, which makes me wonder if I shouldn't try and get some kind of bracelet deal going.

In the end, however, you're really only left thinking "Poor Bill." Bill is just a bad-ass.

I give this movie an A-. Go see it, biatches.