Playing Dirty

Miami defense attorney Yoshi Lomax bribes, manipulates, blackmails and uses her body to win cases and a promotion at her firm, but her physical assets and flexible morals end up doing her more harm than good in this undistinguished potboiler. Yoshi's singular and clichéd motivation is money, and it drives her to, among other things, sleep with her boss, betray her DEA agent best friend and make some questionable calls about what clients she takes on. Then her lucky streak ends: she gets demoted at work, loses her bid to get a case dismissed, gets arrested for drug possession, gets abandoned by her best friend and is framed for murder. The convoluted plot is thick with overblown revenge schemes, and while the characters are about as strong as wet cardboard, the action is unrelenting and over-the-top. Readers looking for pure grit will want to take a look. (Apr.)