Shaping Up

The British writing team behind Losing Control miscalculates here, turning what might have been a lightweight send-up of trendy lifestyles into a glutinous blend of mystery and romance. Overweight and pushing 30, food writer Cordelia Ledbury finds that her rich recipes have become passe and her love life has crumbled. She is summoned by her imperious grandmother, Isabella Cordoba de Zarate, to Isabella's posh spa, Alba Health Manor. Promising that Cordelia will eventually inherit the place, Isabella offers to train her to manage it. Cordelia discovers that nothing is quite what it seems: the staff members have their own unsavory agendas and the cosseted guests conceal more than mere liquor bottles. And just what is in that mood-altering ``herbal infusion'' served nightly? The aging actress, the anorexic teenager, the depressed housewife and a number of other stock characters work their way through fragmented episodes toward falsely neat, predictable solutions. A bloated, forced and decidedly unfunny story. (Apr.)