There’s a madman calling himself Casanova on the loose, kidnapping young women in North Carolina.

Some are later found dead, tied to trees in the remote parts of the forest. But where are the rest of the missing girls?

If you’ve seen a commercial for “Kiss the Girls,” you of course know they aren’t dead. They’ve become a part of the madman’s collection. So we know these women are alive, somewhere. (In fact, if you’ve seen the commercials, you’ve pretty much seen the movie. I hate that.)

As Alex Cross, Morgan Freeman is on the case when his niece becomes one of the kidnap victims. He teams up with the only woman to escape Casanova’s collection, a young doctor named Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd).

Freeman is always good and always adds a sense of credibility to a movie. The real discovery, though, is Judd. She is a relatively new face, and I must say she is an incredible actress.

Judd gives a very real performance as the young doctor. Her style seemed so genuine that I tended to forget she was acting. Her performance as McTiernan is so good it almost (I repeat, almost) saves the movie.

“Kiss the Girls” has a lot of the right elements, but they just don’t mesh very well. First of all, the story isn’t very coherent.

For example, about halfway through the movie, all of a sudden Cross and McTiernan are flying to California to find Casanova.

Why? Because an Internet search by Cross found that a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills bought a large quantity of a certain type of drug, which Casanova uses to knock out his victims even though a plastic surgeon would have no use for that kind of drug.

If you’re confused, try reading that last sentence again.

OK, so they do find some wacko out there, who may or may not be Casanova. To say this guy has a foot fetish would be a true understatement. (He keeps the frozen feet of a dozen women in a hidden freezer.)

There are a lot of nagging questions I had about this movie. Like, if this Casanova is so smart, why did he kidnap a woman who is also a kickboxer, as McTiernan is?

Or, why can’t the FBI just find the waterfall McTiernan jumped from during her escape and locate the subterranean dungeon from there? Hint: Look for the big iron- and-wood doors in the ground locked with chains.

The main problem is this: “Kiss the Girls” breaks the cardinal rule of movie thrillers: It doesn’t thrill. The performances are entertaining, but that just isn’t enough.

2 stars out of five.

Mike Milik is a senior in advertising from West Des Moines.